Trouble Converting a Hex String (in Lua)

Question

I've been trying different ways to read this hex string, and I cannot figure out how. Each method only converts part of it. The online converters don't do it, and this is the method I tried:

function string.fromhex(str)
  return (str:gsub('..', function (cc)
    return string.char(tonumber(cc, 16))
  end))
end

packedStr = "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"

local f = assert(io.open("unsquished.lua", "w+"));
f:write(packedStr:fromhex());
f:close()

This simply gives me a bunch of gibberish surrounded by a few readable strings.

Could someone please tell me how to convert the entirety of this string into readable format? Thank you!

Answer 1

Break your packedStr in parts of 2

1. 1b = 27
2. 4c = 76
3. 75 = 117
4. 61 = 97

and so forth. When you use string.char() with the resulting decimal output, it converts them to equivalent ASCII values. Of the total possible 256 ASCII values in extended ASCII table, only 95 are printable characters.

Thus, you'll always receive the gibberish text. Here's what you'd receive when trying to print each of the character separately: http://codepad.org/orM7pmAb and that is the only possible "readable" output.