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Format-Hex

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

Displays a file or other input as hexadecimal.

Syntax

Format-Hex
      [-Path] <String[]>
      [-Count <Int64>]
      [-Offset <Int64>]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Format-Hex
      -LiteralPath <String[]>
      [-Count <Int64>]
      [-Offset <Int64>]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Format-Hex
      -InputObject <PSObject>
      [-Encoding <Encoding>]
      [-Count <Int64>]
      [-Offset <Int64>]
      [-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.

'Hello World' | Format-Hex

Label: String (System.String) <2944BEC3>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 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.

Format-Hex -Path .\File.t7f -Count 48

Label: C:\Test\File.t7f

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 25 50 44 46 2D 31 2E 35 0D 0A 25 B5 B5 B5 B5 0D %PDF-1.5..%????.
0000000000000010 0A 31 20 30 20 6F 62 6A 0D 0A 3C 3C 2F 54 79 70 .1 0 obj..<</Typ
0000000000000020 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. In this example, the Count parameter is used to limit the output to the first 48 bytes of the file.

Example 3: Format an array of different data types

This example uses an array of different data types to highlight how Format-Hex handles them in the Pipeline.

It will pass each object through the Pipeline and process individually. However, if it's numeric data, and the adjacent object is also numeric, it will group them into a single output block.

'Hello world!', 1, 1138, 'foo', 'bar', 0xdeadbeef, 1gb, 0b1101011100 , $true, $false | Format-Hex

Label: String (System.String) <24F1F0A3>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 48 65 6C 6C 6F 20 77 6F 72 6C 64 21             Hello world!

   Label: Int32 (System.Int32) <2EB933C5>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 01 00 00 00 72 04 00 00                         �   r�

   Label: String (System.String) <4078B66C>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 66 6F 6F                                        foo

   Label: String (System.String) <51E4A317>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 62 61 72                                        bar

   Label: Int32 (System.Int32) <5ADF167B>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 EF BE AD DE 00 00 00 40 5C 03 00 00             ï¾-Þ   @\�

   Label: Boolean (System.Boolean) <7D8C4C1D>

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                         �

Parameters

-Count

This represents the number of bytes to include in the hex output.

This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 6.2.

Type:Int64
Position:Named
Default value:Int64.MaxValue
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Encoding

Specifies the encoding of the input strings. This only applies to [string] input. The parameter has no effect on numeric types. The output value is always utf8NoBOM.

The acceptable values for this parameter are as follows:

  • ascii: Uses the encoding for the ASCII (7-bit) character set.
  • ansi: Uses the encoding for the for the current culture's ANSI code page. This option was added in PowerShell 7.4.
  • bigendianunicode: Encodes in UTF-16 format using the big-endian byte order.
  • bigendianutf32: Encodes in UTF-32 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 for Encoding.CodePage.

Starting with PowerShell 7.4, you can use the Ansi value for the Encoding parameter to pass the numeric ID for the current culture's ANSI code page without having to specify it manually.

Note

UTF-7* is no longer recommended to use. As of PowerShell 7.1, a warning is written if you specify utf7 for the Encoding parameter.

Type:Encoding
Accepted values:ASCII, BigEndianUnicode, BigEndianUTF32, OEM, Unicode, UTF7, UTF8, UTF8BOM, UTF8NoBOM, UTF32
Position:Named
Default value:UTF8NoBOM
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InputObject

Specifies the objects to be formatted. Enter a variable that contains the objects or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

Only certain scalar types and [system.io.fileinfo] are supported.

The supported scalar types are:

  • [string], [char]
  • [byte], [sbyte]
  • [int16], [uint16], [short], [ushort]
  • [int], [uint], [int32], [uint32],
  • [long], [ulong], [int64], [uint64]
  • [single], [float], [double]
  • [boolean]

Prior to PowerShell 6.2, Format-Hex would handle a Pipeline input with multiple input types by grouping all like objects together. Now, it handles each individual object as it passes through the Pipeline and won't group objects together unless like objects are adjacent.

Type:PSObject
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
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, LP
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Offset

This represents the number of bytes to skip from being part of the hex output.

This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 6.2.

Type:Int64
Position:Named
Default value:0
Required:False
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
Required:True
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
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

String

You can pipe a string to this cmdlet.

Outputs

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. The output also states they type of bytes being processed. If you specify the Path or LiteralPath parameter, the object contains the path of the file that contains each byte. If you pass a string, boolean, integer, etc, it will be labeled appropriately.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Format-Hex:

  • All platforms:
    • fhx

The right-most column of output tries to render the bytes as ASCII 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.