Extension API could be enhanced like Convert.ToHexString and improved in terms of speed

[maettu-this]

Hi Ben,

The HexStringExtensions is what Convert.ToHexString is for .NET 5+. Extending the API with e.g. the (Byte[], Int32, Int32) overload would make it even more useful.

In terms of speed, the analysis in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/311165/how-do-you-convert-a-byte-array-to-a-hexadecimal-string-and-vice-versa/624379#624379 indentifies https://stackoverflow.com/questions/311165/how-do-you-convert-a-byte-array-to-a-hexadecimal-string-and-vice-versa/24343727#24343727 as a much faster approach than the current BitConverter based approach.

These are just ideas. Feel free to accept or reject.

Best regards, Matthias

[maettu-this]

Another minor: target.ToString("X").Replace("-", "") can be simplified to target.ToString("X") as UInt* values can never be negative.

[invertedtomato]

Hi @maettu-this! Thanks for the thoughts. ToHexString is only used for debugging and automated testing and hasn't been intended for any intensive use. If you were to raise an optimisation PR that didn't involved upgrading to .NET 5 (as discussed in the other issue) and remained "safe" I'd be happy to accept it, though I couldn't justify spending time on it myself at this stage.

target.ToString("X").Replace("-", "") can be simplified to target.ToString("X") ToString("X") puts hyphens between bytes (ie 00-00-00) and this is to remove that. It's not there to deal with negative integers.

[maettu-this]

@invertedtomato, target.ToString("X") does put not hyphens, see https://dotnetfiddle.net/v1zQXt.

[invertedtomato]

So it is, when ToString("X")ing a *int it does not add hyphens. Hyphens are only used on byte arrays. I've pushed a change for this now.