An MD5 hash for any given message is 16 bytes (128 bits) in size and is represented by a unique 32 digit Hexadecimal number.
Erlang has a built-in-function to calculate the MD5, which returns the hash in the form of a binary data-structure.
$ erlang:md5("hello").
<93,65,64,42,188,75,42,118,185,113,157,145,16,23,197,146>
But what we usually need is a string representation of the Hexadecimal value. Hence, we need to convert the Erlang Binary to a Hex-string, for which I didn’t find any BIF.
So first of all, lets convert the Binary to a list (of integers)- so that we can process it easily. Erlang has a function for converting binary to list:
$ binary_to_list(<93,65,64,42,188,75,42,118,185,113,157,145,16,23,197,146>).
[93,65,64,42,188,75,42,118,185,113,157,145,16,23,197,146]
Now, we have to convert each of the integers in the list into its hex equivalent. How do you convert an integer in Decimal system to a Hexadecimal system?
Eg. Take an integer 230. Divide it by 16.
230 div 16 = 14 In Hex, 14 is E
230 rem 16 = 6 In Hex, 6 is 6
So 230 in Hex is E6.
Now we will have to do the same for every integer in the list. I did it using the lists:map function and the applying the int_to_hex conversion to every integer:
$ lists:map(fun(X) ->
int_to_hex(X) end, L).
This will actually return a list of integers representing the (hex) string, which is how a string is represented in Erlang - a list of Integers.
The complete code is below:
-module(md5).
-export([md5_hex/1]).
md5_hex(S) ->
Md5_bin = erlang:md5(S),
Md5_list = binary_to_list(Md5_bin),
lists:flatten(list_to_hex(Md5_list)).
list_to_hex(L) ->
lists:map(fun(X) -> int_to_hex(X) end, L).
int_to_hex(N) when N < 256 ->
[hex(N div 16), hex(N rem 16)].
hex(N) when N < 10 ->
$0+N;
hex(N) when N >= 10, N < 16 ->
$a + (N-10).
Output:
$ md5:md5_hex("hello").
"5d41402abc4b2a76b9719d911017c592"
Line 10, why write `fun(X) -> int_to_hex(X) end` instead of the simpler (and maybe faster?) `fun int_to_hex/1`?
The whole “int_to_hex” code could also be replaced with `fun(X) -> io_lib:format(”~.16b”, [X]) end`, but I’m not sure it would be much better (if better at all).
And using binary comprehension, we can do away with the rest of the code and use:
md5_hex(S) ->
lists:flatten(
[io_lib:format("~.16b",[N]) || <> <= erlang:md5(S)]).
wathout: oneliner
>> io:format(lists:flatten( array:to_list(array:new([{size,16},{default,"~.16b"}])) “~n” ), binary_to_list(erlang:md5(”hello”))).
5d41402abc4b2a76b9719d911017c592
I know this looks awful. But look at io:format documentation, it can
print hex numbers.
Or a much shorter and slightly more obscure version:
-module(md5).
-export([md5_hex/1]).
md5_hex(S) -> [hex(N) || <> <= erlang:md5(S)].
hex(N) when N $0 N;
hex(N) when N >= 10, N $a (N-10).
Whoops my comment does not look right because of angle brackets I’ll try once more:
module(md5).
-export([md5_hex/1]).
md5_hex(S) -> [hex(N) || <<N:4>> <= erlang:md5(S)].
hex(N) when N < 10 -> $0 N;
hex(N) when N >= 10, N < 16 -> $a (N-10).
You can also use list comprehensions to make it simpler:
14> MD5 = fun(S) -> [ HexChar || <> <= erlang:md5(S), [HexChar] <- io_lib:format(”~.16b”, [Nibble]) ] end.
#Fun
15> MD5(”hello”).
“5d41402abc4b2a76b9719d911017c592″
Looks like your website eats up characters. Please advise as to how to format my reply appropriately. Thank-you.
Thanks guys. All of your solutions are very much valid and appreciated. I am learning my way through, as I go.
[...] %% Crypto doesn’t have a hexdigest method. I found the code below %% here %% Convert Integer from the SHA to Hex list_to_hex(L)-> lists:map(fun(X) -> int_to_hex(X) end, L). [...]
I am also learning Erlang and was having a problem doing this. Thank you for the post and also thanks to other commenters.
[...] Sudarshan Acharya » Blog Archive » MD5 in Erlang [...]
1> lists:flatten([io_lib:format("~2.16.0b",[N])||N<-binary_to_list(erlang:md5(”abc”))]).
“900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72″
Or use a little bit of magic bit syntax:
1> <> = erlang:md5(”abc”), lists:flatten(io_lib:format(”~32.16.0b”, [M])).
“900150983cd24fb0d6963f7d28e17f72″
Read more about bit syntax here: http://erlang.org/documentation/doc-5.4.12/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.html
Nice form that strips out random characters within *lesser than* and *greater *than*
the left hand side of the = should be: lesser_than M colon 128 greater_than
Thanks
Erlang has great bignum support. All the mapping/comprehension solutions miss the point.
Here’s the canonical conversion function:
hexstring(<>) ->
lists:flatten(io_lib:format(”~32.16.0b”, [X])).
As you can see, it takes a 128-bit binary value, and formats it as a big-endian unsigned 0-padded base-16 lowercase number. Which is exactly what you want.
hexstring(erlang:md5(”foobar”)).
“3858f62230ac3c915f300c664312c63f”
Blech. Crappy tag stripping…
The argument doing the match is:
< < X:128/big-unsigned-integer > >
@JonWatte, Interesting. Would have saved some trouble! Thanks for your post on the topic. I am linking it here: http://www.enchantedage.com/node/199