how to covert a string to a ether address (20 bytes)?

Question

I have tried to use sha3 but it return error since invalid address. Here is my code. The sha3 returns 32 bytes address. I wonder is there other function that returns 20 bytes .

var to_add = web3.sha3(str);
web3.eth.sendTransaction({from: '0xC5b0f45d8533909a80eA45Ed2FC42bd36C1Cccac', data:str,to:to_add},function(err, transactionHash)

web3.sha3 seems pretty old BTW. Are you still on web3.js v0.x? — goodvibration, Nov 18 '20 at 17:47
@goodvibration str is user logging information. I need to store them in recipient(to address) . Yes I am using web3.js v0 since class requires that. thanks — chen Crush, Nov 18 '20 at 17:51
The value is not defined. It depends on which function user call. Bascially, the value can be "user a log in", or "user a log out "etc. So the length is not fixed — chen Crush, Nov 18 '20 at 18:09
Why would sha3 give you an Ethereum address though? Moreover, what exactly is this address going to be good for (since obviously, no one will know its private key)? — goodvibration, Nov 18 '20 at 18:14
@goodvibration the address should be the logging information data. i need to store the data in address. The professor mentions use keccak256, so I find sha3 is keccak256 in web3. That's why i used sha3. — chen Crush, Nov 18 '20 at 18:20

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 19 '20 at 00:26

Addresses are computed from a private key, see How is the address of an Ethereum contract computed?. If you are trying to generate them from a random hexadecimal string it is very likely you will not be able to access the funds transferred.

If you already have an hexadecimal string that comes from a valid address and its checksum is incorrect you can fix it with web3.utils.toChecksumAddress.

> badAddress = "0xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa";
> goodAddress = web3.utils.toChecksumAddress(badAddress);
> console.log(goodAddress);
0xaAaAaAaaAaAaAaaAaAAAAAAAAaaaAaAaAaaAaaAa

how to covert a string to a ether address (20 bytes)?

1 Answers1