How to print the data in byte array as characters?

Question

In my byte array I have the hash values of a message which consists of some negative values and also positive values. Positive values are being printed easily by using the (char)byte[i] statement.

Now how can I get the negative value?

What do you by by "as characters" exactly? Decimal? Hex: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9655181/convert-from-byte-array-to-hex-string-in-java — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, May 02 '15 at 19:17

score 288 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 22 '16 at 07:36

288

How about Arrays.toString(byteArray)?

Here's some compilable code:

byte[] byteArray = new byte[] { -1, -128, 1, 127 };
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(byteArray));

Output:

[-1, -128, 1, 127]

Why re-invent the wheel...

edited Jul 22 '16 at 07:36

Sjoerd

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answered Jun 24 '11 at 05:11

Bohemian

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In Kotlin it is `byteArray.contentToString()` – Vlad Dec 05 '19 at 05:59

score 25 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '11 at 05:42

25

If you want to print the bytes as chars you can use the String constructor.

byte[] bytes = new byte[] { -1, -128, 1, 127 };
System.out.println(new String(bytes, 0));

answered Jun 24 '11 at 05:42

Peter Lawrey

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The constructor String(byte[], int) is deprecated. Use String(byte[], Charset) instead, for example new String(bytes, Charset.forName("ISO-8859-1")). – Klas Lindbäck Sep 02 '11 at 11:57

score 24 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 15 '17 at 07:43

24

Try it:

public static String print(byte[] bytes) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb.append("[ ");
    for (byte b : bytes) {
        sb.append(String.format("0x%02X ", b));
    }
    sb.append("]");
    return sb.toString();
}

Example:

 public static void main(String []args){
    byte[] bytes = new byte[] { 
        (byte) 0x01, (byte) 0xFF, (byte) 0x2E, (byte) 0x6E, (byte) 0x30
    };

    System.out.println("bytes = " + print(bytes));
 }

Output: bytes = [ 0x01 0xFF 0x2E 0x6E 0x30 ]

answered Oct 15 '17 at 07:43

Robust

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This is one of the better options if you want to print the characters as _hex_. – Per Lundberg Nov 30 '18 at 06:49
looks like it prints them as numbers – mjs Dec 07 '20 at 10:46
Thank you for your help. I need to print the content similar to HexDump. I think your solution is the most suitable solution for my situation! – Lancer.Yan Dec 28 '21 at 01:08

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 24 '11 at 05:03

Well if you're happy printing it in decimal, you could just make it positive by masking:

int positive = bytes[i] & 0xff;

If you're printing out a hash though, it would be more conventional to use hex. There are plenty of other questions on Stack Overflow addressing converting binary data to a hex string in Java.

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 06 '13 at 09:42

11

Try this one : new String(byte[])

answered Sep 06 '13 at 09:42

Vinit Prajapati

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score 8 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 24 '11 at 05:08

8

byte[] buff = {1, -2, 5, 66};
for(byte c : buff) {
    System.out.format("%d ", c);
}
System.out.println();

gets you

1 -2 5 66

answered Jun 24 '11 at 05:08

alphazero

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 20 '21 at 16:29

1

in Kotlin you can use :

println(byteArray.contentToString())

answered Dec 20 '21 at 16:29

Alireza Ghanbarinia

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How to print the data in byte array as characters?

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