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Java Hexadecimal to Decimal conversion: Custom Logic

I am trying to figure out how to convert hex into a string and integer so I can manipulate an RGB light on my arduino micro-controller through it's serialport. I found a good example on the java website, but I'm having a difficult time understanding some of the methods and I am getting hung up. I could easily just copy-paste this code and have it work but I want to fully understand it. I will add comments to my understandings and hopefully someone can provide some feedback.
public class HexToDecimalExample3{
public static int getDecimal(String hex){ //this is the function which we will call later and they are declaring string hex here. Can we declare string hex inside the scope..?
String digits = "0123456789ABCDEF"; //declaring string "digits" with all possible inputs in linear order for later indexing
hex = hex.toUpperCase(); //converting string to uppercase, just "in case"
int val = 0; //declaring int val. I don't get this part.
for (int i = 0; i < hex.length(); i++) //hex.length is how long the string is I think, so we don't finish the loop until all letters in string is done. pls validate this
{
char c = hex.charAt(i); //char is completely new to me. Are we taking the characters from the string 'hex' and making an indexed array of a sort? It seems similar to indexOf but non-linear? help me understand this..
int d = digits.indexOf(c); //indexing linearly where 0=1 and A=11 and storing to an integer variable
val = 16*val + d; //How do we multiply 16(bits) by val=0 to get a converted value? I do not get this..
}
return val;
}
public static void main(String args[]){
System.out.println("Decimal of a is: "+getDecimal("a")); //printing the conversions out.
System.out.println("Decimal of f is: "+getDecimal("f"));
System.out.println("Decimal of 121 is: "+getDecimal("121"));
}}
To summerize the comments, it's primarily the char c = hex.charAt(i); AND the val = 16*val + d; parts I don't understand.

Ok, let's go line for line
public static int getDecimal(String hex)
hex is the parameter, it needs to be declared there, so you can pass a String when you call the function.
String digits = "0123456789ABCDEF";
Yes, this declares a string with all characters which can occur in a hexadecimal number.
hex = hex.toUpperCase();
It converts the letters in the hex-String to upper case, so that it is consistent, i.e. you always have F and never f, no matter which is being input.
int val = 0;
This is the variable where the corresponding decimal value will later be in. We will do our calculations with this variable.
for (int i = 0; i < hex.length(); i++)
hex.length() is the number of characters in the hex-String provided. We execute the code inside this for loop once per character.
char c = hex.charAt(i);
Yes, char represents a single character. We retrieve the character from the hex-String at index i, so in the first iteration it is the first character, in the second iteration the second character and so on.
int d = digits.indexOf(c);
We look which index the character has in the digit-String. In that way we determine the decimal representation of this specific digit. Like 0-9 stay 0-9 and F becomes a 15.
val = 16*val + d;
Let's think about what we have to do. We have the decimal value of the digit. But in hexadecimal we have this digit at a specific position with which it gets multiplied. Like the '1' in '100' is actually not a 1, but 100 * 1 because it is at this position.
10 in hexadecimal is 16 in decimal, because we have 1 * 16. Now the approach here is a little bit complicated. val is not uninitialized. val is 0 at the beginning and then contains the cumulated values from the previous iterations. Since the first character in the String is the highest position we don't know directly with what we have to multiply, because we don't know how many digits the number has (actually we do, but this approach doesn't use this). So we just add the digit value to it. In the consecutive iterations it will get multiplied by 16 to scale it up to the corresponding digit base value. Let me show you an example:
Take 25F as hex number. Now the first iteration takes the 2 and converts it to a 2 and adds it to val. The 16 * val resolves to 0 so is not effective in the first time.
The next iteration multiplies the 2 with 16 and takes the 5 (converted to 5) and adds it to val. So now we have (I split it mathematically so you understand it):
2 * 16 + 5
Next we get the F which is decimal 15. We multiply val by 16 and add the 15.
We get 2 * 256 + 5 * 16 + 16 (* 1), which is actually how you calculate the decimal value of this hex value mathematically.
Another possibility to compute val is:
val += Math.pow(16, hex.length() - i - 1) * d;

What is the purpose of low and high nibble when converting a string to a HexString

Recently I have been going through some examples of MD5 to start getting an understanding of security and MD5 has been fairly simple to understand for the most part and a good starting point even though it is no longer secure. Despite this I have a question regarding high and lo nibbles when it comes to converting a string to a hex string.
So I know high and low nibbles are equal to half a byte or also can be hex digits that represent a single hexadecimal digit. What I am not understanding though is exactly how they work and the purpose that they serve. I have been searching on google and I can't find much of an answer that will help explain what they do in the context that they are in. Here is the context of the conversion:
private static String toHexString( byte[] byteArray )
{
final String HEX_CHARS = "0123456789ABCDEF";
byte[] result = new byte[byteArray.length << 1];
int len = byteArray.length;
for( int i = 0 ; i < len ; i++ )
{
byte b = byteArray[i]
int lo4 = b & 0x0F;
int hi4 = ( b & 0xF0 ) >> 4;
result[i * 2] = (byte)HEX_CHARS.charAt( hi4 );
result[i * 2 + 1] = (byte)HEX_CHARS.charAt( lo4 );
}
return new String( result );
}
I don't exactly understand what is going on in the for statement. I would appreciate any help understanding this and if there is some link to some places that I can learn more about this please also leave it.
I understand the base definition of nibble but not the operations and what the assignment to the number 4 is doing either.
If I need to post the full example code I will just ask as I am unsure if it is needed.

This code simply converts a byte array to hexadecimal representation. Within the for-loop, each byte is converted into two characters. I think it's easier to understand it on an example.
Assume one of the bytes in your array is, say, 218 (unsigned). That's 1101 1010 in binary.
lo4 gets the lowest 4 bits by AND-ing the byte with the bitmask 00001111:
int lo4 = b & 0x0F;
This results in 1010, 10 in decimal.
hi4 gets the highest 4 bits by AND-ing with the bitmask 1111 0000 and shifting 4 bits to the right:
int hi4 = ( b & 0xF0 ) >> 4;
This results in 1101, 13 in decimal.
Now to get the hexadecimal representation of this byte you only need to convert 10 and 13 to their hexadecimal representations and concatenate. For this you simply look up the character in the prepared HEX_CHARS string at the specific index. 10 -> A, 13 -> D, resulting in 218 -> DA.

It's just bit operations. The & character takes the literal bit value of each and does a logical and on them.
int lo4 = b & 0x0F;
for instance if b = 24 then it will evaluate to this
00011000
+00001111
=00001000
The second such line does the same on the first four bits.
00011000
+11110000
=00010000
the '>>' shifts all of the bits a certain number in that direction so
00010000 >> 4 = 00000001.
This is done so that you can derive the hex value from the number. Since each character in hex can represent 4 bits by splitting the number into pieces of 4 bits we can convert it.
in the case of b = 24 we no have lo4 = 1000 or 8 and hi4 = 0001 or 1. The last part of the loop assigns the character value for each.
Hex_chars[hi4] = '1' and Hex_chars[lo4] = '8' which gives you "18" for that part of the string which is 24 in hex.

To check if hex string is in given range [duplicate]

I have the following code...
int Val=-32768;
String Hex=Integer.toHexString(Val);
This equates to ffff8000
int FirstAttempt=Integer.parseInt(Hex,16); // Error "Invalid Int"
int SecondAttempt=Integer.decode("0x"+Hex); // Error "Invalid Int"
So, initially, it converts the value -32768 into a hex string ffff8000, but then it can't convert the hex string back into an Integer.
In .Net it works as I'd expect, and returns -32768.
I know that I could write my own little method to convert this myself, but I'm just wondering if I'm missing something, or if this is genuinely a bug?

int val = -32768;
String hex = Integer.toHexString(val);
int parsedResult = (int) Long.parseLong(hex, 16);
System.out.println(parsedResult);
That's how you can do it.
The reason why it doesn't work your way: Integer.parseInt takes a signed int, while toHexString produces an unsigned result. So if you insert something higher than 0x7FFFFFF, an error will be thrown automatically. If you parse it as long instead, it will still be signed. But when you cast it back to int, it will overflow to the correct value.

It overflows, because the number is negative.
Try this and it will work:
int n = (int) Long.parseLong("ffff8000", 16);

int to Hex :
Integer.toHexString(intValue);
Hex to int :
Integer.valueOf(hexString, 16).intValue();
You may also want to use long instead of int (if the value does not fit the int bounds):
Hex to long:
Long.valueOf(hexString, 16).longValue()
long to Hex
Long.toHexString(longValue)

It's worth mentioning that Java 8 has the methods Integer.parseUnsignedInt and Long.parseUnsignedLong that does what you wanted, specifically:
Integer.parseUnsignedInt("ffff8000",16) == -32768
The name is a bit confusing, as it parses a signed integer from a hex string, but it does the work.

Try using BigInteger class, it works.
int Val=-32768;
String Hex=Integer.toHexString(Val);
//int FirstAttempt=Integer.parseInt(Hex,16); // Error "Invalid Int"
//int SecondAttempt=Integer.decode("0x"+Hex); // Error "Invalid Int"
BigInteger i = new BigInteger(Hex,16);
System.out.println(i.intValue());

As Integer.toHexString(byte/integer) is not working when you are trying to convert signed bytes like UTF-16 decoded characters you have to use:
Integer.toString(byte/integer, 16);
or
String.format("%02X", byte/integer);
reverse you can use
Integer.parseInt(hexString, 16);

Java's parseInt method is actally a bunch of code eating "false" hex : if you want to translate -32768, you should convert the absolute value into hex, then prepend the string with '-'.
There is a sample of Integer.java file :
public static int parseInt(String s, int radix)
The description is quite explicit :
* Parses the string argument as a signed integer in the radix
* specified by the second argument. The characters in the string
...
...
* parseInt("0", 10) returns 0
* parseInt("473", 10) returns 473
* parseInt("-0", 10) returns 0
* parseInt("-FF", 16) returns -255

Using Integer.toHexString(...) is a good answer. But personally prefer to use String.format(...).
Try this sample as a test.
byte[] values = new byte[64];
Arrays.fill(values, (byte)8); //Fills array with 8 just for test
String valuesStr = "";
for(int i = 0; i < values.length; i++)
valuesStr += String.format("0x%02x", values[i] & 0xff) + " ";
valuesStr.trim();

Below code would work:
int a=-32768;
String a1=Integer.toHexString(a);
int parsedResult=(int)Long.parseLong(a1,16);
System.out.println("Parsed Value is " +parsedResult);

Hehe, curious. I think this is an "intentianal bug", so to speak.
The underlying reason is how the Integer class is written. Basically, parseInt is "optimized" for positive numbers. When it parses the string, it builds the result cumulatively, but negated. Then it flips the sign of the end-result.
Example:
66 = 0x42
parsed like:
4*(-1) = -4
-4 * 16 = -64 (hex 4 parsed)
-64 - 2 = -66 (hex 2 parsed)
return -66 * (-1) = 66
Now, let's look at your example
FFFF8000
16*(-1) = -16 (first F parsed)
-16*16 = -256
-256 - 16 = -272 (second F parsed)
-272 * 16 = -4352
-4352 - 16 = -4368 (third F parsed)
-4352 * 16 = -69888
-69888 - 16 = -69904 (forth F parsed)
-69904 * 16 = -1118464
-1118464 - 8 = -1118472 (8 parsed)
-1118464 * 16 = -17895552
-17895552 - 0 = -17895552 (first 0 parsed)
Here it blows up since -17895552 < -Integer.MAX_VALUE / 16 (-134217728).
Attempting to execute the next logical step in the chain (-17895552 * 16)
would cause an integer overflow error.
Edit (addition): in order for the parseInt() to work "consistently" for -Integer.MAX_VALUE <= n <= Integer.MAX_VALUE, they would have had to implement logic to "rotate" when reaching -Integer.MAX_VALUE in the cumulative result, starting over at the max-end of the integer range and continuing downwards from there. Why they did not do this, one would have to ask Josh Bloch or whoever implemented it in the first place. It might just be an optimization.
However,
Hex=Integer.toHexString(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
System.out.println(Hex);
System.out.println(Integer.parseInt(Hex.toUpperCase(), 16));
works just fine, for just this reason. In the sourcee for Integer you can find this comment.
// Accumulating negatively avoids surprises near MAX_VALUE

Fast way converting a byte array to corresponding Integer

First, this sounds like the problem here:
How to convert a byte array to its numeric value (Java)?
But the origin of my Byte-Array is a String, something like this:
byte[] foo = new byte[8];
foo = "12345678".getBytes();
Is there a faster way (yes its really about doing this quick) than
Integer.parseInt(new String(foo))?
The String contains only digits which represent a Integer.

try this
int res = 0;
for(int i = foo.length -1, m = 1; i >=0; i--, m *= 10) {
res += (foo[i] & 0xF) * m;
}

You could try something like this:
byte foo[] = "12345678".getBytes();
//Since it is an 'integer' essentially, it will contain ASCII values of decimal digits.
long num = 0; //Store number here.
for(int i = foo.length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
num = num * 10 + (foo[i] - '0'); // or (foo[i] - 48) or (foo[i] & 0xf)
}
num stores the required number.
Precaution: Make sure you use decimal number only.
EDIT:
The Mechanism
On calling getBytes() of the String "12345678", the byte[] returned is as follows:
The values we see are the ASCII or Unicode values for the eqivalent characters.
There are several ways to extract their equivalent character as ints:
Since the arrangement of the digit chars, i.e. '0', '1', '2', etc. are done in the desired order - ascending and sequentially, we can extract the characters by subtrcting the ASCII value of '0' i.e. 48.
#Evgeniy Dorofeev correctly pointed out the method of masking:
'0' => 48 => 11 0000
We notice that if we extract the last 4 bits, we get the required int.
To do this, we need to extract them in the following way.
Let us take foo[1], i.e. 50
50 & 0xf (original)
= 50 & 15 (in Decimal)
= 11 0010 & 1111 (in Binary)
= 0010 (result)
= 2 (Decimal)
Hence, the required digit is obtained. It in necessary to add it to num int the correct way (which I expect of every programmer to have some knowledge about).

How to convert a long to a fixed-length 16-bit binary string?

Hi i want to convert a long integer to binary but the problem is i want a fixed 16 bit binary result after conversion like if i convert 2 to 16 bit binary it should give me 0000000000000010 as ans can anyone help me ?

Most likely what you want is Integer.toBinaryString(), combined with something to ensure that you get exactly 16 places:
int val = 2;
String bin = Integer.toBinaryString(0x10000 | val).substring(1);
The idea here is to get the zero padding by putting a 1 in the 17th place of your value, and then use String.substring() to chop off the leading 1 this creates, thus always giving you exactly 16 binary digits. (This works, of course, only when you are certain that the input is a 16-bit number.)

I'm presuming that you want a String output of fixed length (16). Here's what the code would look like:
String binarized = Integer.toBinaryString(i);
int len = binarized.length();
String sixteenZeroes = "00000000000000000";
if (len < 16)
binarized = sixteenZeroes.subString(0, 16-len).concat(binarized);
else
binarized = binarized.subString(len - 16);
return binarized;
Warning: I didn't compile or run it, so make sure no bug is there :)

In contrast to many suggestions here: Integer.toBinaryString, doesn't work for a 16 bit (a short) and it will not print leading zero's. The reason is that (as the name suggests) this will only work for integers. And for negative numbers the bit representation will change (the first bit indicates a negative number). The two numbers below represent the same number in short and int. So if you want to represent the raw bits you have received (this is the general application of your problem), this function will generate strange output.
decimal: -3
short: 1111 1111 1111 1101
int: 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1101
EDIT: Changed the number above
Hence you can not cast the short if you are interested in the bit.
Java doesn't provide the implementation for short, so you will have to provide your own. Something like this (size is the number of bits):
int displayMask = 1 << (size - 1);
StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer( size);
for ( int c = 1; c <= size; c++ )
{
buf.append( ( value & displayMask ) == 0 ? '0' : '1' );
value <<= 1;
}

I had to do it for a 32 bit number and ended up with:
String stringWord = Long.toBinaryString(word);
while (stringWord.length() < 32) // ensure that length of word is 32
stringWord = "0" + stringWord;

Integer.toBinaryString will convert an int to its binary representation as a string.
It does not give you leading zeroes, so if you really need the string to have those and be 16 bits, you can just add them yourself.
You should know how to do that.
Do note that an int is actually 32 bits in Java. You should also know how two's complement works. The binary representation of -1, for example, is 32 1s.

In terms of an algorithm to convert base10 numbers to binary, I personally think the following is pretty straightforward:
char[] array;
for (i; i < 16; i++)
{
if (yourNumber % 2 == 0)
array[16-i] = '0';
else if (yourNumber % 2 == 1)
array[16-i] = '1';
yourNumber = yourNumber / 2;
}
You can then convert your char array to a String if you like.

if you want the binary representation of a long, then there is a method in the Long objet to do so :
String Long.toString(long i, int radix);
with a radix of 2, you should have a binary representation.
regards
Guillaume

Binary is a representation and not a format to convert an integer to. For example, if you have an integer:
int i = 2;
The binary representation will be 00000010. Java has only signed integers, so this link will be helpful.