Convert from ASCII string encoded in Hex to plain ASCII?

Question

How can I convert from hex to plain ASCII in Python?

Note that, for example, I want to convert "0x7061756c" to "paul".

I've tried a bunch of stuff I found here: docs.python.org/library/binascii.html — Paul Reiners
– Paul Reiners, Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 21:51
With the help of the link you just gave us, I found the function you were looking for. What exactly did you try and why didn't it work? — Vincent Savard
– Vincent Savard, Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 21:54
I tried the following: >>> binascii.b2a_hqx("0x7061756c") '-(Jh-$Ba0c8fB`' >>> binascii.b2a_uu("0x7061756c") "*,'@W,#8Q-S4V8P \n" >>> binascii.b2a_base64("0x7061756c") 'MHg3MDYxNzU2Yw==\n' >>> binascii.b2a_qp("0x7061756c") '0x7061756c' >>> binascii.b2a_hex("0x7061756c") '30783730363137353663' >>> binascii.b2a_hex(0x7061756c) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> TypeError: must be string or buffer, not int >>> — Paul Reiners
– Paul Reiners, Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 21:55
Don't you mean "7-bit" ASCII? (Which is sort of silly because ASCII is only 7-bits.) A GUID is 128bits... — user166390
– user166390, Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 22:00

ucczs · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-17 01:26:20Z

264

A slightly simpler solution (python 2 only):

>>> "7061756c".decode("hex")
'paul'

edited Jul 17, 2023 at 1:26

ucczs

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answered Mar 9, 2012 at 22:03

cjm

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3 Comments

jfs Over a year ago

there is no .decode('hex') on Python 3. .decode('hex') uses binascii.unhexlify() on Python 2.

cjm Over a year ago

Thanks for pointing that out, I'm not as familiar with Python 3. This solution also won't work in 1 as far as I know.

Mark Evans Over a year ago

codecs.decode("7061756c", "hex") works for Python 2 and Python 3. But it returns a bytes() string in Python 3. But that's reasonable for an ASCII string.

user4369081 · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-17 06:22:25Z

192

No need to import any library:

>>> bytearray.fromhex("7061756c").decode()
'paul'

answered Dec 17, 2014 at 6:22

user4369081

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6 Comments

Jona Over a year ago

Best solution for me (works with python 3) as it even accepts spaces : bytearray.fromhex("70 61 75 6C").decode()

grambo Over a year ago

bytearray.fromhex("70e4756c").decode(encoding="Latin1") 'päul' For those of us playing in binary, the extended characters choke on the default utf-8 decode, other than that, this is the most portable answer I see! Thanks!

tripleee Over a year ago

Of course you have to know the actual encoding of the data if it is to be interpreted as text. Using 'latin-1' will get rid of any errors but may well produce complete gibberish if the text is not actually Latin-1.

xuiqzy Over a year ago

In the interpreter, even the repr of the bytearray that is returned without .decode() is human readable, so for quickly checking something, you might get away without the .decode().

maxschlepzig Over a year ago

or better bytes.fromhex("7061756c").decode() since you don't need a mutable array and it's less to type.

|

andrew cooke · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-09 22:01:05Z

50

>>> txt = '7061756c'
>>> ''.join([chr(int(''.join(c), 16)) for c in zip(txt[0::2],txt[1::2])])
'paul'

i'm just having fun, but the important parts are:

>>> int('0a',16)         # parse hex
10
>>> ''.join(['a', 'b'])  # join characters
'ab'
>>> 'abcd'[0::2]         # alternates
'ac'
>>> zip('abc', '123')    # pair up
[('a', '1'), ('b', '2'), ('c', '3')]        
>>> chr(32)              # ascii to character
' '

will look at binascii now...

>>> print binascii.unhexlify('7061756c')
paul

cool (and i have no idea why other people want to make you jump through hoops before they'll help).

answered Mar 9, 2012 at 22:01

andrew cooke

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Comments

Julien · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-12 12:19:27Z

46

In Python 2:

>>> "7061756c".decode("hex")
'paul'

In Python 3:

>>> bytes.fromhex('7061756c').decode('utf-8')
'paul'

answered Apr 12, 2018 at 12:19

Julien

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Comments

Husky · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-13 20:38:45Z

8

b''.fromhex('7061756c')

use it without delimiter

answered Oct 13, 2019 at 20:38

Husky

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1 Comment

Martijn Pieters Over a year ago

This is no different from bytes.fromhex() or bytearray.fromhex(). For both these types, .fromhex() is a classmethod.

carloserivera · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-12 17:33:42Z

6

Here's my solution when working with hex integers and not hex strings:

def convert_hex_to_ascii(h):
    chars_in_reverse = []
    while h != 0x0:
        chars_in_reverse.append(chr(h & 0xFF))
        h = h >> 8

    chars_in_reverse.reverse()
    return ''.join(chars_in_reverse)

print convert_hex_to_ascii(0x7061756c)

answered Sep 12, 2012 at 17:33

carloserivera

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1 Comment

Mark Lakata Over a year ago

+1 for a useful example, but you are not converting "hex" as the input but you are converting any integer to a hex string. You code will work equally as well with print convert_hex_to_ascii(123456).

score 6 · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-23 02:40:28Z

6

Alternatively, you can also do this ...

Python 2 Interpreter

print "\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c"

Example

user@linux:~# python
Python 2.7.14+ (default, Mar 13 2018, 15:23:44) 
[GCC 7.3.0] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> print "\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c"
p a u l
>>> exit()
user@linux:~#

or

Python 2 One-Liner

python -c 'print "\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c"'

Example

user@linux:~# python -c 'print "\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c"'
p a u l
user@linux:~#

Python 3 Interpreter

user@linux:~$ python3
Python 3.6.9 (default, Apr 18 2020, 01:56:04) 
[GCC 8.4.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> print("\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c")
p a u l

>>> print("\x70\x61\x75\x6c")
paul

Python 3 One-Liner

python -c 'print("\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c")'

Example

user@linux:~$ python -c 'print("\x70 \x61 \x75 \x6c")'
p a u l

user@linux:~$ python -c 'print("\x70\x61\x75\x6c")'
paul

edited May 23, 2020 at 2:40

answered May 22, 2018 at 14:18

user9013730

2 Comments

rjferguson Over a year ago

This works fine without the spaces as well, and works fine in python3 with print().

user9013730 Over a year ago

Yes, I put it on purpose to make it easier to see. Let me update the answer with Python 3 as well.

nihiser · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-04 18:18:04Z

5

Tested in Python 3.3.2 There are many ways to accomplish this, here's one of the shortest, using only python-provided stuff:

import base64
hex_data ='57696C6C20796F7520636F6E76657274207468697320484558205468696E6720696E746F20415343494920666F72206D653F2E202E202E202E506C656565656173652E2E2E212121'
ascii_string = str(base64.b16decode(hex_data))[2:-1]
print (ascii_string)

Of course, if you don't want to import anything, you can always write your own code. Something very basic like this:

ascii_string = ''
x = 0
y = 2
l = len(hex_data)
while y <= l:
    ascii_string += chr(int(hex_data[x:y], 16))
    x += 2
    y += 2
print (ascii_string)

edited Jul 4, 2013 at 18:18

nihiser

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answered Jun 26, 2013 at 23:32

Victor Barrantes

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Comments

Md Josif Khan · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-17 10:50:51Z

-1

No need to import anything, Try this simple code with example how to convert any hex into string

python hexit.py
Hex it>>some string


 736f6d6520737472696e67

python tohex.py
Input Hex>>736f6d6520737472696e67
some string
cat tohex.py


s=input("Input Hex>>")
b=bytes.fromhex(s)
print(b.decode())

answered Jan 17, 2022 at 10:50

Md Josif Khan

1

1 Comment

Community Over a year ago

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

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