Converting Hex String to NSData in Swift

Swift 4 & Swift 5 implementation:

init?(hexString: String) {
  let len = hexString.count / 2
  var data = Data(capacity: len)
  var i = hexString.startIndex
  for _ in 0..<len {
    let j = hexString.index(i, offsetBy: 2)
    let bytes = hexString[i..<j]
    if var num = UInt8(bytes, radix: 16) {
      data.append(&num, count: 1)
    } else {
      return nil
    }
    i = j
  }
  self = data
}

Usage:

let data = Data(hexString: "0a1b3c4d")

convert hex string to data and string:

Swift1

func dataWithHexString(hex: String) -> NSData {
    var hex = hex
    let data = NSMutableData()
    while(countElements(hex) > 0) {
        var c: String = hex.substringToIndex(advance(hex.startIndex, 2))
        hex = hex.substringFromIndex(advance(hex.startIndex, 2))
        var ch: UInt32 = 0
        NSScanner(string: c).scanHexInt(&ch)
        data.appendBytes(&ch, length: 1)
    }
    return data
}

use:

let data = dataWithHexString("68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64") // <68656c6c 6f2c2077 6f726c64>
if let string = NSString(data: data, encoding: 1) {
    print(string) // hello, world
}

Swift2

func dataWithHexString(hex: String) -> NSData {
    var hex = hex
    let data = NSMutableData()
    while(hex.characters.count > 0) {
        let c: String = hex.substringToIndex(hex.startIndex.advancedBy(2))
        hex = hex.substringFromIndex(hex.startIndex.advancedBy(2))
        var ch: UInt32 = 0
        NSScanner(string: c).scanHexInt(&ch)
        data.appendBytes(&ch, length: 1)
    }
    return data
}

use:

let data = dataWithHexString("68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64") // <68656c6c 6f2c2077 6f726c64>
if let string = String(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding) {
    print(string) //"hello, world"
}

Swift3

func dataWithHexString(hex: String) -> Data {
    var hex = hex
    var data = Data()
    while(hex.characters.count > 0) {
        let c: String = hex.substring(to: hex.index(hex.startIndex, offsetBy: 2))
        hex = hex.substring(from: hex.index(hex.startIndex, offsetBy: 2))
        var ch: UInt32 = 0
        Scanner(string: c).scanHexInt32(&ch)
        var char = UInt8(ch)
        data.append(&char, count: 1)
    }
    return data
}

use:

let data = dataWithHexString(hex: "68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64") // <68656c6c 6f2c2077 6f726c64>
let string = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) // "hello, world"

Swift4

func dataWithHexString(hex: String) -> Data {
    var hex = hex
    var data = Data()
    while(hex.count > 0) {
        let subIndex = hex.index(hex.startIndex, offsetBy: 2)
        let c = String(hex[..<subIndex])
        hex = String(hex[subIndex...])
        var ch: UInt32 = 0
        Scanner(string: c).scanHexInt32(&ch)
        var char = UInt8(ch)
        data.append(&char, count: 1)
    }
    return data
}

use:

let data = dataWithHexString(hex: "68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64") // <68656c6c 6f2c2077 6f726c64>
let string = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) // "hello, world"

This is my hex string to Data routine:

extension String {
    
    /// Create `Data` from hexadecimal string representation
    ///
    /// This creates a `Data` object from hex string. Note, if the string has any spaces or non-hex characters (e.g. starts with '<' and with a '>'), those are ignored and only hex characters are processed.
    ///
    /// - returns: Data represented by this hexadecimal string.
    
    var hexadecimal: Data? {
        var data = Data(capacity: count / 2)
        
        let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: "[0-9a-f]{1,2}", options: .caseInsensitive)
        regex.enumerateMatches(in: self, range: NSRange(startIndex..., in: self)) { match, _, _ in
            let byteString = (self as NSString).substring(with: match!.range)
            let num = UInt8(byteString, radix: 16)!
            data.append(num)
        }
        
        guard data.count > 0 else { return nil }
        
        return data
    }
    
}

And for the sake of completeness, this is my Data to hex string routine:

extension Data {
    
    /// Hexadecimal string representation of `Data` object.
    
    var hexadecimal: String {
        return map { String(format: "%02x", $0) }
            .joined()
    }
}

---

Note, as shown in the above, I generally only convert between hexadecimal representations and NSData instances (because if the information could have been represented as a string you probably wouldn't have created a hexadecimal representation in the first place). But your original question wanted to convert between hexadecimal representations and String objects, and that might look like so:

extension String {
    
    /// Create `String` representation of `Data` created from hexadecimal string representation
    ///
    /// This takes a hexadecimal representation and creates a String object from that. Note, if the string has any spaces, those are removed. Also if the string started with a `<` or ended with a `>`, those are removed, too.
    ///
    /// For example,
    ///
    ///     String(hexadecimal: "<666f6f>")
    ///
    /// is
    ///
    ///     Optional("foo")
    ///
    /// - returns: `String` represented by this hexadecimal string.
    
    init?(hexadecimal string: String, encoding: String.Encoding = .utf8) {
        guard let data = string.hexadecimal() else {
            return nil
        }
        
        self.init(data: data, encoding: encoding)
    }
            
    /// Create hexadecimal string representation of `String` object.
    ///
    /// For example,
    ///
    ///     "foo".hexadecimalString()
    ///
    /// is
    ///
    ///     Optional("666f6f")
    ///
    /// - parameter encoding: The `String.Encoding` that indicates how the string should be converted to `Data` before performing the hexadecimal conversion.
    ///
    /// - returns: `String` representation of this String object.
    
    func hexadecimalString(encoding: String.Encoding = .utf8) -> String? {
        return data(using: encoding)?
            .hexadecimal
    }
    
}

You could then use the above like so:

let hexString = "68656c6c 6f2c2077 6f726c64"
print(String(hexadecimal: hexString))

Or,

let originalString = "hello, world"
print(originalString.hexadecimalString())

For permutations of the above for earlier Swift versions, see the revision history of this question.