hexutils - hex(adecimal) encode/decode helpers 'n' more for String, NilClass, Kernel and more

• home :: github.com/rubycocos/core
• bugs :: github.com/rubycocos/core/issues
• gem :: rubygems.org/gems/hexutils
• rdoc :: rubydoc.info/gems/hexutils

Part of the If I Were King Matz (aka Yukihiro Matsumoto) - Ideas For Ruby 4.0 - What's Broken & Missing in Ruby 3.x and How To Fix It Series

For some background on working with bin(ary) and hex(adecimal) strings in ruby see the Programming Bits, Bytes 'n' Blocks Step-by-Step Book / Guide Let's start with the three types of strings, that is, bytes, string buffers, and frozen strings, ...

To make programming hex(adecimal) strings easier let's add some encode / decode helpers.

require 'hexutils'

# get a bin(ary) string from a hex(adecimal) string
hex '0xffff'     # or
hex( '0xffff' )  # or
decode_hex( '0xffff' )
#=> "\xff\xff".b

# get a hex(a)decimal string from a bin(ary) string
encode_hex( "\xff\xff".b )
#=> "ffff"

Note: The decode_hex (or hex) helper allows all variants of upper- and lowercase with or without the 0x/0X prefix e.g. 0XFFFF, FFFF, ffff, etc. For convenience whitespace incl. newlines are allowed anywhere.

# get a hex(a)decimal string from a bin(ary) string
"\xff\xff".b.hex   # or
"\xff\xff".b.to_hex   # or
#=> "ffff"

"\xff\xff".b.hex?  # or
"\xff\xff".b.is_hex?
#=> false

"ffff".hex?      # or
"ffff".is_hex?   # or
"0xffff".is_hex?   # or
"0XFFFF".is_hex?   # or
#=> true

NOTE: The "old" String#hex method that returns an integer number from a hex(adecimal) string gets rewired or is that "monkey patched" to String#old_hex and String#hexnum.

nil.hex?  # or
nil.is_hex?
#=> false

nil.hex   # or
nil.to_hex
#=> ''

That's it for now.

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