MD5 HASH Encoding Problem

[Shaun Merrill]

This function doesn't seem to be giving me the appearance I expect. This
should appear more like
"1ba442ab45c800 2a86d068d1c1748 e44" but it looks really cryptic and screwy,
like "*óìØLÜzrVÊ %' \Y7".

Here is my code segment written in VB.NET Enterprise Architect:
--------
Public Function MD5File(ByVal Filename As String) As String
'
' Read a file, produce an MD5 hashed key value in a String.
'
With New Security.Crypto graphy.MD5Crypt oServiceProvide r
Dim result() As Byte = .ComputeHash( New
IO.StreamReader (Filename).Base Stream )
Dim Encoding As Text.Encoding = System.Text.Enc oding.Default
Return Encoding.GetStr ing(result)
Encoding = Nothing
.Clear()
End With
End Function
---------
Perhaps you can suggest a modification to my code which yields a more
hex-like string. I'm new to VB.NET, but I love it so far.
Thanks,
~ Shaun
near Seattle, WA

[Nak]

Hi there,

This is much easier done by loading the file into a byte array first,

Imports System.Security .Cryptography

Public Function createHash(ByVa l iByteArray() As Byte) As String
Dim pBytHash() As Byte
pBytHash = New MD5CryptoServic eProvider().Com puteHash(iByteA rray)
Return (BitConverter.T oString(pBytHas h, 0, pBytHash.GetUpp erBound(0)))
End Function

You can then use the above function to get an MD5 Hash of the data.

Nick.

"Shaun Merrill" <sm*******@comc ast.net> wrote in message
news:u3******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...

This function doesn't seem to be giving me the appearance I expect. This
should appear more like
"1ba442ab45c800 2a86d068d1c1748 e44" but it looks really cryptic and screwy,
like "*óìØLÜzrVÊ %' \Y7".

Here is my code segment written in VB.NET Enterprise Architect:
--------
Public Function MD5File(ByVal Filename As String) As String
'
' Read a file, produce an MD5 hashed key value in a String.
'
With New Security.Crypto graphy.MD5Crypt oServiceProvide r
Dim result() As Byte = .ComputeHash( New
IO.StreamReader (Filename).Base Stream )
Dim Encoding As Text.Encoding = System.Text.Enc oding.Default
Return Encoding.GetStr ing(result)
Encoding = Nothing
.Clear()
End With
End Function
---------
Perhaps you can suggest a modification to my code which yields a more
hex-like string. I'm new to VB.NET, but I love it so far.
Thanks,
~ Shaun
near Seattle, WA

[Tom Spink]

Shaun,

The result you are getting is actually correct... it's just not formatted in
"nice-hex-format", you still have it as raw data.

Here's a quick code snippet that will take your raw data, and display it how
you want...

///
Dim strMD5 As String
For Each bytByte As Byte In result
strMD5 &= bytByte.ToStrin g("x2")
Next
///

Now, strMD5 contains the nicely formatted MD5 hash. (Assuming 'result' is
your byte array).

Also, you have an unreachable code segment in your code:

Encoding = Nothing
.Clear()
These two lines will *never* be called, because they are preceeded with a
'Return' statement, which exits the method.

Hope this helps!

-- Tom Spink

"Shaun Merrill" wrote:
This function doesn't seem to be giving me the appearance I expect. This
should appear more like
"1ba442ab45c800 2a86d068d1c1748 e44" but it looks really cryptic and screwy,
like "Â*óìØLÃœzrV Ê%' \Y7".

Here is my code segment written in VB.NET Enterprise Architect:
--------
Public Function MD5File(ByVal Filename As String) As String
'
' Read a file, produce an MD5 hashed key value in a String.
'
With New Security.Crypto graphy.MD5Crypt oServiceProvide r
Dim result() As Byte = .ComputeHash( New
IO.StreamReader (Filename).Base Stream )
Dim Encoding As Text.Encoding = System.Text.Enc oding.Default
Return Encoding.GetStr ing(result)
Encoding = Nothing
.Clear()
End With
End Function
---------
Perhaps you can suggest a modification to my code which yields a more
hex-like string. I'm new to VB.NET, but I love it so far.
Thanks,
~ Shaun
near Seattle, WA