Calculate a MD5 hash from a string

As per MSDN

Create MD5:

public static string CreateMD5(string input)
{
    // Use input string to calculate MD5 hash
    using (System.Security.Cryptography.MD5 md5 = System.Security.Cryptography.MD5.Create())
    {
        byte[] inputBytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(input);
        byte[] hashBytes = md5.ComputeHash(inputBytes);

        // Convert the byte array to hexadecimal string
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < hashBytes.Length; i++)
        {
            sb.Append(hashBytes[i].ToString("X2"));
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

// given, a password in a string
string password = @"1234abcd";

// byte array representation of that string
byte[] encodedPassword = new UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(password);

// need MD5 to calculate the hash
byte[] hash = ((HashAlgorithm) CryptoConfig.CreateFromName("MD5")).ComputeHash(encodedPassword);

// string representation (similar to UNIX format)
string encoded = BitConverter.ToString(hash)
   // without dashes
   .Replace("-", string.Empty)
   // make lowercase
   .ToLower();

// encoded contains the hash you want

Was trying to create a string representation of MD5 hash using LINQ, however, none of the answers were LINQ solutions, therefore adding this to the smorgasbord of available solutions.

string result;
using (MD5 hash = MD5.Create())
{
    result = String.Join
    (
        "",
        from ba in hash.ComputeHash
        (
            Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(observedText)
        ) 
        select ba.ToString("x2")
    );
}

You can use Convert.ToBase64String to convert 16 byte output of MD5 to a ~24 char string. A little bit better without reducing security. (j9JIbSY8HuT89/pwdC8jlw== for your example)

Depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve. Technically, you could just take the first 12 characters from the result of the MD5 hash, but the specification of MD5 is to generate a 32 char one.

Reducing the size of the hash reduces the security, and increases the chance of collisions and the system being broken.

Perhaps if you let us know more about what you are trying to achieve we may be able to assist more.

Calculate a MD5 hash from a string

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