Converting a md5 hash byte array to a string

Question

How can I convert the hashed result, which is a byte array, to a string?

byte[] bytePassword = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(password);

using (MD5 md5 = MD5.Create())
{
    byte[] byteHashedPassword = md5.ComputeHash(bytePassword);
} 

I need to convert byteHashedPassword to a string.

Answer 1

   public static string ToHex(this byte[] bytes, bool upperCase)
    {
        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(bytes.Length*2);

        for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
            result.Append(bytes[i].ToString(upperCase ? "X2" : "x2"));

        return result.ToString();
    }

You can then call it as an extension method:

string hexString = byteArray.ToHex(false);

Answer 2

I always found this to be the most convenient:

string hashPassword = BitConverter.ToString(byteHashedPassword).Replace("-","");

For some odd reason BitConverter likes to put dashes between bytes, so the replace just removes them.

Update: If you prefer "lowercase" hex, just do a .ToLower() and boom.

Do note that if you are doing this as a tight loop and many ops this could be expensive since there are at least two implicit string casts and resizes going on.