How do I initialize a byte array in Java?

dfickling picture dfickling · Jun 26, 2012 · Viewed 656.4k times · Source

I have to store some constant values (UUIDs) in byte array form in java, and I'm wondering what the best way to initialize those static arrays would be. This is how I'm currently doing it, but I feel like there must be a better way.

private static final byte[] CDRIVES = new byte[] { (byte)0xe0, 0x4f, (byte)0xd0,
    0x20, (byte)0xea, 0x3a, 0x69, 0x10, (byte)0xa2, (byte)0xd8, 0x08, 0x00, 0x2b,
    0x30, 0x30, (byte)0x9d };
private static final byte[] CMYDOCS = new byte[] { (byte)0xba, (byte)0x8a, 0x0d,
    0x45, 0x25, (byte)0xad, (byte)0xd0, 0x11, (byte)0x98, (byte)0xa8, 0x08, 0x00,
    0x36, 0x1b, 0x11, 0x03 };
private static final byte[] IEFRAME = new byte[] { (byte)0x80, 0x53, 0x1c,
    (byte)0x87, (byte)0xa0, 0x42, 0x69, 0x10, (byte)0xa2, (byte)0xea, 0x08,
    0x00, 0x2b, 0x30, 0x30, (byte)0x9d };
...
and so on

Is there anything I could use that may be less efficient, but would look cleaner? for example:

private static final byte[] CDRIVES =
    new byte[] { "0xe04fd020ea3a6910a2d808002b30309d" };

Answer

Denys Séguret picture Denys Séguret · Jun 26, 2012

Using a function converting an hexa string to byte[], you could do

byte[] CDRIVES = hexStringToByteArray("e04fd020ea3a6910a2d808002b30309d");

I'd suggest you use the function defined by Dave L in Convert a string representation of a hex dump to a byte array using Java?

I insert it here for maximum readability :

public static byte[] hexStringToByteArray(String s) {
    int len = s.length();
    byte[] data = new byte[len / 2];
    for (int i = 0; i < len; i += 2) {
        data[i / 2] = (byte) ((Character.digit(s.charAt(i), 16) << 4)
                             + Character.digit(s.charAt(i+1), 16));
    }
    return data;
}

If you let CDRIVES static and final, the performance drop is irrelevant.