Swift 4 hex string to binary string - swift

Question

Noted that the old method to convert a hex string to a binary string has been removed from swift i.e. : String(hex, radix: 2) -> binary string
What is an alternative in swift 4?

Answer 1

You need first to convert your hexaString to an Array of Bytes [UInt8]. Then you can use String(_, radix:) to convert the bytes to binary. Note that if you would like to return a String instead of an array of strings [String] you would need to add leading zeros to make your binary strings length consistent (8 characters):
extension String {
typealias Byte = UInt8
var hexaToBytes: [Byte] {
var start = startIndex
return stride(from: 0, to: count, by: 2).compactMap { _ in // use flatMap for older Swift versions
let end = index(after: start)
defer { start = index(after: end) }
return Byte(self[start...end], radix: 16)
}
}
var hexaToBinary: String {
return hexaToBytes.map {
let binary = String($0, radix: 2)
return repeatElement("0", count: 8-binary.count) + binary
}.joined()
}
}
let hexString = "00ff01fe"
hexString.hexaToBinary // "00000000111111110000000111111110"

Answer 2

I don't recall any function that would convert a hex string to another string of arbitrary radix. Perhaps you are thinking about the initializer functions that convert between strings and integer values (and vice versa) using an arbitrary radix:
let hex = "00ff01fe"
let value = UInt64(hex, radix: 16)!
let binary = String(value, radix: 2)
let paddedBinary = repeatElement("0", count: 64 - binary.count) + binary
But that only applies when the hex string represents a 64 bit value, but it illustrates the basic idea. Convert to some integer type, and then convert back to binary, padding it out with zeros.
If you have a hex string that is longer than that, you cannot use the above. But you can map the individual characters of your hex string to numeric values, build binary representation of each, zero pad them, and use joined to concatenate them together:
let hex = "ffeeddccbbaa99887766554433221100"
let result = hex.compactMap { c -> String? in
guard let value = Int(String(c), radix: 16) else { return nil }
let string = String(value, radix: 2)
return repeatElement("0", count: 4 - string.count) + string
}.joined()