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Format-Hex
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Format-Hex
Module:Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Displays a file or other input as hexadecimal.
Syntax
PowerShellCopy
Format-Hex
[-Path] <string[]>
[-Count <long>]
[-Offset <long>]
[<CommonParameters>]
PowerShellCopy
Format-Hex
-LiteralPath <string[]>
[-Count <long>]
[-Offset <long>]
[<CommonParameters>]
PowerShellCopy
Format-Hex
-InputObject <psobject>
[-Encoding <Encoding>]
[-Count <long>]
[-Offset <long>]
[-Raw]
[<CommonParameters>]
Description
The Format-Hex
cmdlet displays a file or other input as hexadecimal values. To determine the offset of a character from the output, add the number at the leftmost of the row to the number at the top of the column for that character.
The Format-Hex
cmdlet can help you determine the file type of a corrupted file or a file that might not have a filename extension. You can run this cmdlet, and then read the hexadecimal output to get file information.
When using Format-Hex
on a file, the cmdlet ignores newline characters and returns the entire contents of a file in one string with the newline characters preserved.
Examples
Example 1: Get the hexadecimal representation of a string
This command returns the hexadecimal values of a string.
PowerShellCopy
'Hello World' | Format-Hex
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00000000 48 65 6C 6C 6F 20 57 6F 72 6C 64 Hello World
The string Hello World is sent down the pipeline to the Format-Hex
cmdlet. The hexadecimal output from Format-Hex
shows the values of each character in the string.
Example 2: Find a file type from hexadecimal output
This example uses the hexadecimal output to determine the file type. The cmdlet displays the file's full path and the hexadecimal values.
To test the following command, make a copy of an existing PDF file on your local computer and rename the copied file to File.t7f.
PowerShellCopy
Format-Hex -Path .\File.t7f
Path: C:\Test\File.t7f
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00000000 25 50 44 46 2D 31 2E 35 0D 0A 25 B5 B5 B5 B5 0D %PDF-1.5..%????.
00000010 0A 31 20 30 20 6F 62 6A 0D 0A 3C 3C 2F 54 79 70 .1 0 obj..<</Typ
00000020 65 2F 43 61 74 61 6C 6F 67 2F 50 61 67 65 73 20 e/Catalog/Pages
The Format-Hex
cmdlet uses the Path parameter to specify a filename in the current directory, File.t7f. The file extension .t7f is uncommon, but the hexadecimal output %PDF shows that it is a PDF file.
Parameters
-Count
This represents the number of bytes to include in the hex output.
Type: | Int64 |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | Int64.MaxValue |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Encoding
Specifies the encoding of the output. This only applies to [string]
input. The parameter has no effect on numeric types. The default value is UTF8NoBOM.
The acceptable values for this parameter are as follows:
- ASCII: Uses the encoding for the ASCII (7-bit) character set.
- BigEndianUnicode: Encodes in UTF-16 format using the big-endian byte order.
- OEM: Uses the default encoding for MS-DOS and console programs.
- Unicode: Encodes in UTF-16 format using the little-endian byte order.
- UTF7: Encodes in UTF-7 format.
- UTF8: Encodes in UTF-8 format.
- UTF8BOM: Encodes in UTF-8 format with Byte Order Mark (BOM)
- UTF8NoBOM: Encodes in UTF-8 format without Byte Order Mark (BOM)
- UTF32: Encodes in UTF-32 format.
Beginning with PowerShell 6.2, the Encoding parameter also allows numeric IDs of registered code pages (like -Encoding 1251
) or string names of registered code pages (like -Encoding "windows-1251"
). For more information, see the .NET documentation forEncoding.CodePage.
Type: | Encoding |
Accepted values: | ASCII, BigEndianUnicode, OEM, Unicode, UTF7, UTF8, UTF8BOM, UTF8NoBOM, UTF32 |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | UTF8NoBOM |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-InputObject
Used for pipeline input. Pipeline input supports only certain scalar types and [system.io.fileinfo]
instances for piping from Get-ChildItem
.
The supported scalar types are:
[string]
,[char]
[byte]
,[sbyte]
[int16]
,[uint16]
,[short]
,[ushort]
[int]
,[uint]
,[int32]
,[uint32]
,[long]
,[ulong]
,[int64]
,[uint64]
[single]
,[float]
,[double]
Type: | PSObject |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Accept pipeline input: | True (ByValue) |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-LiteralPath
Specifies the complete path to a file. The value of LiteralPath is used exactly as it is typed. This parameter does not accept wildcard characters. To specify multiple paths to files, separate the paths with a comma. If the LiteralPath parameter includes escape characters, enclose the path in single quotation marks. PowerShell does not interpret any characters in a single quoted string as escape sequences. For more information, see about_Quoting_Rules.
Type: | String[] |
Aliases: | PSPath |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Offset
This represents the number of bytes to skip from being part of the hex output.
Type: | Int64 |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | 0 |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Path
Specifies the path to files. Use a dot (.
) to specify the current location. The wildcard character (*
) is accepted and can be used to specify all the items in a location. If the Path parameter includes escape characters, enclose the path in single quotation marks. To specify multiple paths to files, separate the paths with a comma.
Type: | String[] |
Position: | 0 |
Default value: | None |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | True |
-Raw
This parameter no longer does anything. It is retained for script compatibility.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
Inputs
System.String
You can pipe a string to this cmdlet.
Outputs
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ByteCollection
This cmdlet returns a ByteCollection. This object represents a collection of bytes. It includes methods that convert the collection of bytes to a string formatted like each line of output returned by Format-Hex
. If you specify the Path or LiteralPath parameter, the object also contains the path of the file that contains each byte.
Notes
The right-most column of output tries to render the bytes as characters:
Generally, each byte is interpreted as a Unicode code point, which means that:
- Printable ASCII characters are always rendered correctly
- Multi-byte UTF-8 characters never render correctly
- UTF-16 characters render correctly only if their high-order byte happens be
NUL
.
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