diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index b25d8dd..7a6c55d 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "hex"
-version = "0.4.3"
+version = "0.5.0"
 authors = ["KokaKiwi <kokakiwi@kokakiwi.net>"]
 description = "Encoding and decoding data into/from hexadecimal representation."
 license = "MIT OR Apache-2.0"
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index bc6a69d..7297e71 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -19,10 +19,7 @@
 //! # let mut output = [0; 0x18];
 //! #
 //! # #[cfg(not(feature = "alloc"))]
-//! # hex::encode_to_slice(b"Hello world!", &mut output).unwrap();
-//! #
-//! # #[cfg(not(feature = "alloc"))]
-//! # let hex_string = ::core::str::from_utf8(&output).unwrap();
+//! # let hex_string = hex::encode_to_slice(b"Hello world!", &mut output).unwrap();
 //! #
 //! # #[cfg(feature = "alloc")]
 //! let hex_string = hex::encode("Hello world!");
@@ -359,7 +356,8 @@ const fn byte2hex(byte: u8, table: &[u8; 16]) -> (u8, u8) {
 /// # fn main() -> Result<(), FromHexError> {
 /// let mut bytes = [0u8; 4 * 2];
 ///
-/// hex::encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut bytes)?;
+/// let hex_str = hex::encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut bytes)?;
+/// assert_eq!(hex_str, "6b697769");
 /// assert_eq!(&bytes, b"6b697769");
 /// # Ok(())
 /// # }
@@ -375,12 +373,16 @@ const fn byte2hex(byte: u8, table: &[u8; 16]) -> (u8, u8) {
 /// assert_eq!(hex::encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut bytes), Err(FromHexError::InvalidStringLength));
 ///
 /// // you can do this instead:
-/// hex::encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut bytes[..4 * 2])?;
+/// let hex_str = hex::encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut bytes[..4 * 2])?;
+/// assert_eq!(hex_str, "6b697769");
 /// assert_eq!(&bytes, b"6b697769\0\0");
 /// # Ok(())
 /// # }
 /// ```
-pub fn encode_to_slice<T: AsRef<[u8]>>(input: T, output: &mut [u8]) -> Result<(), FromHexError> {
+pub fn encode_to_slice<T: AsRef<[u8]>>(
+    input: T,
+    output: &mut [u8],
+) -> Result<&mut str, FromHexError> {
     if input.as_ref().len() * 2 != output.len() {
         return Err(FromHexError::InvalidStringLength);
     }
@@ -395,7 +397,12 @@ pub fn encode_to_slice<T: AsRef<[u8]>>(input: T, output: &mut [u8]) -> Result<()
         output[j] = low;
     }
 
-    Ok(())
+    if cfg!(debug_assertions) {
+        Ok(core::str::from_utf8_mut(output).unwrap())
+    } else {
+        // Saftey: We just wrote valid utf8 hex string into the output
+        Ok(unsafe { core::str::from_utf8_unchecked_mut(output) })
+    }
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]
@@ -418,11 +425,13 @@ mod test {
     #[test]
     fn test_encode_to_slice() {
         let mut output_1 = [0; 4 * 2];
-        encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut output_1).unwrap();
+        let encoded = encode_to_slice(b"kiwi", &mut output_1).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(encoded, "6b697769");
         assert_eq!(&output_1, b"6b697769");
 
         let mut output_2 = [0; 5 * 2];
-        encode_to_slice(b"kiwis", &mut output_2).unwrap();
+        let encoded = encode_to_slice(b"kiwis", &mut output_2).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(encoded, "6b69776973");
         assert_eq!(&output_2, b"6b69776973");
 
         let mut output_3 = [0; 100];