Question

I have a textbox on a form where a person types in a byte array into in the format shown below.

My question is how can I then convert the string array produced into a byte array of the same values?

so this would be entered into the text box :

0x11, 0x01, 0x49, 0x4D, 0x41, 0x47, 0x45, 0x31, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x53, 0x75, 0x6D, 0x6D, 0x61, 0x72, 0x79, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00

the following code then splits it and converts it to a byte array

string text = txtChecksumText.Text;
        string[] parts = text.Split(new string[] { ", " }, StringSplitOptions.None);
        byte[] bytes = new byte[parts.Length];

        for (int i = 0; i < parts.Length; i++)
        {
            bytes[i] = Convert.ToByte(parts[i], 16); // this isn't working as expected
            txtResponse.Text += Environment.NewLine + "     " + i + " = " + parts[i] + " = " + bytes[i].ToString() ;
        }

and the response to show it isn’t working

 0 = 0x11 = 17
 1 = 0x01 = 1
 2 = 0x49 = 73
 3 = 0x4D = 77
 4 = 0x41 = 65
 5 = 0x47 = 71
 6 = 0x45 = 69
 7 = 0x31 = 49
 8 = 0x00 = 0
 9 = 0x00 = 0
 10 = 0x00 = 0
 11 = 0x00 = 0
 12 = 0x00 = 0
 13 = 0x00 = 0
 14 = 0x00 = 0
 15 = 0x00 = 0
 16 = 0x00 = 0
 17 = 0x00 = 0
 18 = 0x00 = 0
 19 = 0x00 = 0
 20 = 0x00 = 0
 21 = 0x00 = 0
 22 = 0x00 = 0
 23 = 0x01 = 1
 24 = 0x53 = 83
 25 = 0x75 = 117
 26 = 0x6D = 109
 27 = 0x6D = 109
 28 = 0x61 = 97
 29 = 0x72 = 114
 30 = 0x79 = 121
 31 = 0x00 = 0
 32 = 0x00 = 0
 33 = 0x00 = 0
 34 = 0x00 = 0
 35 = 0x00 = 0
 36 = 0x00 = 0
 37 = 0x00 = 0
 38 = 0x00 = 0
 39 = 0x00 = 0
 40 = 0x00 = 0
 41 = 0x00 = 0
 42 = 0x00 = 0
 43 = 0x00 = 0
 44 = 0x00 = 0
 45 = 0x00 = 0
 46 = 0x00 = 0
 47 = 0x00 = 0
 48 = 0x00 = 0
 49 = 0x00 = 0
 50 = 0x00 = 0
 51 = 0x00 = 0
 52 = 0x00 = 0
 53 = 0x00 = 0
 54 = 0x00 = 0
 55 = 0x00 = 0

Just to be clear, the 0x11 should come back as a byte 11 not byte 17, same with all the others I’m not trying to convert to decimal i’m trying to convert the string of literal bytes to a byte array for check-sum creation

Answer 1

The bytes you’re getting are just bytes; they aren’t intrinsically decimal or hexadecimal.

If you want to pass the bytes to something else (for a checksum), they’re fine.

Your only problem is that you’re writing them to the console in decimal form – use ToString("x") if you wish to write them out in hexadecimal form for any reason.