MongoDB native: is there any difference between toString and toHexString methods?

Question

I'm using Node.js v0.12.0 with MongoDB driver v1.4.34. So, is there any difference between converting ObjectID to String with toString and toHexString methods?

Answer 1

toHexString method returns the ObjectID id as a 24 byte hex string representation.

// Create a new ObjectID
var objectId = new ObjectID();
// Verify that the hex string is 24 characters long
assert.equal(24, objectId.toHexString().length);

You won't need to base64 encode the result of calling toString on an ObjectId as it's returned as a hex number already. You could also call: _id.toHexString() to get the hex value directly.
Click this link to see MongoDB source (toString just wraps toHexString).