Java converting int to hex and back again

Rich S picture Rich S · Aug 17, 2012 · Viewed 190.3k times · Source

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?

Answer

brimborium picture brimborium · Aug 17, 2012
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.