Ascii to Hex - Hex to Ascii

				
=**************************************
= Name: Ascii to Hex - Hex to Ascii
= Description:Convert an ascii string to a hexidecimal string and translate a hex string back to ascii. I would not - I repeat NOT - call it encryption, but it can be used to diguise text. For example, in a CGI context, you could use this if you want to pass info on the query string but don't want the average user to be able to understand it. Or you could use it to disguies cookie values. You get the idea...
= By: John Winger
=
= Inputs:a string (scalar)
=
= Returns:a string (scalar)
=
=This code is copyrighted and has= limited warranties.Please see http://www.Planet-Source-Code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=627&lngWId=6=for details.=**************************************

#!/usr/bin/perl
##===============================================================
##
##Author: John Winger
##
## Description: Convert an ascii string to a hexidecimal string
##and translate a hex string back to ascii.
##
##===============================================================
use strict;
sub ascii_to_hex ($)
{
	## Convert each ASCII character to a two-digit hex number.
	(my $str = shift) =~ s/(.|\n)/sprintf("%02lx", ord $1)/eg;
	return $str;
}
sub hex_to_ascii ($)
{
	## Convert each two-digit hex number back to an ASCII character.
	(my $str = shift) =~ s/([a-fA-F0-9]{2})/chr(hex $1)/eg;
	return $str;
}
## Let's try it out on the command line
while (1)
{
	print "Enter a string for conversion: ";
	my $str = <STDIN>;
	chomp $str;
	last if !$str || $str =~ /^(?:quit|end)$/i;
	my $h_str = ascii_to_hex $str;
	print "\n\tHex: $h_str\n\n";
	my $a_str = hex_to_ascii $h_str;
	printf("\tASCII: %s\n\n", $a_str eq $str ? $a_str : "error ($a_str)");
}