---
title: Hex Functions
description: Standard library functions for hexadecimal encoding and decoding
---

## encode_hex

`encode_hex` encodes a buffer or string as a hexadecimal string with 0x prefix.

### Inputs

| Name    | Type                  | Description                                                                                                         |
| ------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `value` | buffer, string, addon | The buffer or string to encode. Strings starting with '0x' are decoded as hex; otherwise, raw UTF-8 bytes are used. |

### Output

| Name    | Type   | Description                                                |
| ------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| `value` | string | The input in its hexadecimal representation with 0x prefix |

```hcl
output "encoded_hex" {
    value = encode_hex("hello, world")
}
// > encoded_hex: 0x68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64
```

## decode_hex

`decode_hex` decodes a hexadecimal string and returns the result as a buffer.

### Inputs

| Name         | Type   | Description                                          |
| ------------ | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| `hex_string` | string | The hex string to decode (with or without 0x prefix) |

### Output

| Name    | Type   | Description                        |
| ------- | ------ | ---------------------------------- |
| `value` | buffer | The decoded hex string as a buffer |

```hcl
output "decoded_hex" {
    value = decode_hex("0x68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64")
}
// > decoded_hex: 0x68656c6c6f2c20776f726c64
```