.NET Security Tutorial | Hashing Data Programmatically

Hashing Data Programmatically
•        Once you have created a specific hash algorithm type, you will need to transform your message (such
as a block of character data) into a byte array.
•        This can be achieved using the System.Text.Encoding type.
•        The Encoding.GetBytes() method will transform an array of character data or a System.String type into
the required byte array.

•        The following example illustrates how a textual message can be used as input to the MD5 hash
algorithm:
•        The following is code example is in C#.
•        The only major difference in VB code would be the declaration of the local variables using the Dim
keyword.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Here is the message to hash.
string myMsg = "Hey there.";

// Create a new hash algorithm type using Create().
HashAlgorithm hashAlg = HashAlgorithm.Create("MD5");

// Now encode the string into a byte array.
byte[] myMsgAsByteArray = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(myMsg);

// Now hash it.
byte[] myHashCode = hashAlg.ComputeHash(myMsgAsByteArray);

Console.WriteLine("Hash code of: {0}", myMsg);

// Format as hex with a padding of 2 (just to make it look nice ;-)
foreach(byte x in myHashCode)
Console.Write("{0:X2} ", x);
Console.WriteLine();
}

Hashing Data Programmatically

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