(PowerShell) Compress and Decompress Hex String

Imagine we have data represented as a hex string. This example demonstrates how to decode, compress, and re-encode to a smaller hex string representing the compressed data. An even better choice is to re-encode to a more compact encoding such as base64.

Note: This example requires Chilkat v9.5.0.66 or greater.

Chilkat .NET Downloads Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-9.5.0-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

# This example assumes the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
# See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

$strHex = "54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A0D0A"

$compress = New-Object Chilkat.Compression
$compress.Algorithm = "deflate"

$binDat = New-Object Chilkat.BinData
# Load the hex string into a BinData object.
# This decodes the hexidecimal. The decoded bytes will be contained in the BinData.
$binDat.AppendEncoded($strHex,"hex")

# Compress the BinData.
$compress.CompressBd($binDat)

# Get the compressed data in hex format:
$compressedHex = $binDat.GetEncoded("hex")
$("compressed hex:")
$($compressedHex)

# The compressed hex is: 0BC94855282CCD4CCE56482ACA2FCF5348CBAF50C82ACD2D484D51C82F4B2D522801CAE72456552AA4E4A7EBF172850C61E5BC5C00

# Even better, get the compressed data in base64 format:
# (base64url and modbase64 are other valid choices...)
$compressedBase64 = $binDat.GetEncoded("base64")
$("compressed base64:")
$($compressedBase64)

# The compressed base64 is: C8lIVSgszUzOVkgqyi/PU0jLr1DIKs0tSE1RyC9LLVIoAcrnJFZVKqTkp+vxcoUMYeW8XAA=

# Now decompress:
$binDat.Clear()
$binDat.AppendEncoded($compressedHex,"hex")
$compress.DecompressBd($binDat)

$decompressedHex = $binDat.GetEncoded("hex")
$("decompressed hex:")
$($decompressedHex)

# The output is the original hex string:
# 54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A54686520717569636B2062726F776E20666F78206A756D706564206F76657220746865206C617A7920646F672E0D0A0D0A