How do you convert a byte array to a hexadecimal string in C?

Solution

Function btox converts arbitrary data *bb to an unterminated string *xp of n hexadecimal digits:

void btox(char *xp, const char *bb, int n) 
{
    const char xx[]= "0123456789ABCDEF";
    while (--n >= 0) xp[n] = xx[(bb[n>>1] >> ((1 - (n&1)) << 2)) & 0xF];
}

Example

#include <stdio.h>

typedef unsigned char uint8;

void main(void) 
{
    uint8 buf[] = {0, 1, 10, 11};
    int n = sizeof buf << 1;
    char hexstr[n + 1];

    btox(hexstr, buf, n);
    hexstr[n] = 0; /* Terminate! */
    printf("%s\n", hexstr);
}

Result: 00010A0B.

Live: Tio.run.

You can solve with snprintf and malloc.

char c_buff[50];

u8_number_val[] = { 0xbb, 0xcc, 0xdd, 0x0f, 0xef, 0x0f, 0x0e, 0x0d, 0x0c };

char *s_temp = malloc(u8_size * 2 + 1);

for (uint8_t i = 0; i < u8_size; i++)
{
    snprintf(s_temp  + i * 2, 3, "%02x", u8_number_val[i]);
}

snprintf(c_buff, strlen(s_temp)+1, "%s", s_temp );

printf("%s\n",c_buff);

free(s);

OUT: bbccdd0fef0f0e0d0c

I'll add the C++ version here for anyone who is interested.

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
inline void print_bytes(char const * buffer, std::size_t count, std::size_t bytes_per_line, std::ostream & out) {
    std::ios::fmtflags flags(out.flags()); // Save flags before manipulation.
    out << std::hex << std::setfill('0');
    out.setf(std::ios::uppercase);
    for (std::size_t i = 0; i != count; ++i) {
        auto current_byte_number = static_cast<unsigned int>(static_cast<unsigned char>(buffer[i]));
        out << std::setw(2) << current_byte_number;
        bool is_end_of_line = (bytes_per_line != 0) && ((i + 1 == count) || ((i + 1) % bytes_per_line == 0));
        out << (is_end_of_line ? '\n' : ' ');
    }
    out.flush();
    out.flags(flags); // Restore original flags.
}

It will print the hexdump of the buffer of length count to std::ostream out (you can make it default to std::cout). Every line will contain bytes_per_line bytes, each byte is represented using uppercase two digit hex. There will be a space between bytes. And at end of line or end of buffer it will print a newline. If bytes_per_line is set to 0, then it will not print new_line. Try for yourself.

I know this question already has an answer but I think my solution could help someone.

So, in my case I had a byte array representing the key and I needed to convert this byte array to char array of hexadecimal values in order to print it out in one line. I extracted my code to a function like this:

char const * keyToStr(uint8_t const *key)
{
    uint8_t offset = 0;
    static char keyStr[2 * KEY_SIZE + 1];

    for (size_t i = 0; i < KEY_SIZE; i++)
    {
        offset += sprintf(keyStr + offset, "%02X", key[i]);
    }
    sprintf(keyStr + offset, "%c", '\0');

    return keyStr;
}

Now, I can use my function like this:

Serial.print("Public key: ");
Serial.println(keyToStr(m_publicKey));

Serial object is part of Arduino library and m_publicKey is member of my class with the following declaration uint8_t m_publicKey[32].