introduce hex2chr() for converting two hexadecimal digits to a character

Add and use a helper function that decodes the char value of two
hexadecimal digits.  It returns a negative number on error, avoids
running over the end of the given string and doesn't shift negative
values.

Signed-off-by: Rene Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index c141b3ca0..81af2c2a6 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -1133,6 +1133,16 @@ static inline unsigned int hexval(unsigned char c)
 	return hexval_table[c];
 }
 
+/*
+ * Convert two consecutive hexadecimal digits into a char.  Return a
+ * negative value on error.  Don't run over the end of short strings.
+ */
+static inline int hex2chr(const char *s)
+{
+	int val = hexval(s[0]);
+	return (val < 0) ? val : (val << 4) | hexval(s[1]);
+}
+
 /* Convert to/from hex/sha1 representation */
 #define MINIMUM_ABBREV minimum_abbrev
 #define DEFAULT_ABBREV default_abbrev