split a solidity address into its individual characters.

getAddressChars.sol

 function getAddressChars(address _address)
        private
        pure
        returns (bytes memory)
 {
        bytes memory hexSymbols = "0123456789abcdef";
        uint256 value = uint256(uint160(_address));
        uint256 temp = value;
        uint256 length = 0;

        while (temp != 0) {
            length++;
            temp >>= 8;
        }

        uint256 bufferLength = 2 * length + 2;
        bytes memory chars = new bytes(bufferLength);

        // // first two chars will always be 0x.
        chars[0] = "0";
        chars[1] = "x";

        // // first fill up the buffer
        // start at 2 because we already know that the first two characters are 0x.
        for (uint256 i = 2; i < bufferLength; i++) {
            // for whatever reason, this fills up the buffer starting from the end
            // so here we are incrementing up but filling in the end of the array first.
            // if someone knows how to fix this
            chars[bufferLength - i + 1] = hexSymbols[value & 0xf];
            value >>= 4;
        }

        return chars;
 }
 
 
 /*
  Usage:

  bytes memory chars = getAddressChars(_address);
  // now you can access each character of an address directly through an index.
  // so string(char[0]) returns "0", string(char[1]) returns "x", etc.
 */