Converting a hex string to a byte array

Question

What is the best way to convert a variable length hex string e.g. \"01A1\" to a byte array containing that data.

i.e converting this:

st         


        

Answer 1

This can be done with a stringstream, you just need to store the value in an intermediate numeric type such as an int:

  std::string test = "01A1"; // assuming this is an even length string
  char bytes[test.length()/2];
  stringstream converter;
  for(int i = 0; i < test.length(); i+=2)
  {
      converter << std::hex << test.substr(i,2);
      int byte;
      converter >> byte;
      bytes[i/2] = byte & 0xFF;
      converter.str(std::string());
      converter.clear();
  }