How to convert an int to a little endian byte array?

Question

Hello,

I have this function in C# to convert a little endian byte array to an integer number:

int LE2INT(byte[] data)
{
  return (data[3] << 24) | (data[2] << 16) | (data[1] << 8) | data[0];
}

Now I want to convert it back to little endian.. Something like

byte[] INT2LE(int data)
{
  // ...
}

Any idea?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Just do it in reverse:

result[3]= (data >> 24) & 0xff;
result[2]= (data >> 16) & 0xff;
result[1]= (data >> 8)  & 0xff;
result[0]=  data        & 0xff; 

Answer 2

Just reverse it, Note that this this code (like the other) works only on a little Endian machine. (edit - that was wrong, since this code returns LE by definition)

  byte[] INT2LE(int data)
  {
     byte[] b = new byte[4];
     b[0] = (byte)data;
     b[1] = (byte)(((uint)data >> 8) & 0xFF);
     b[2] = (byte)(((uint)data >> 16) & 0xFF);
     b[3] = (byte)(((uint)data >> 24) & 0xFF);
     return b;
  }

Answer 3

Could you use the BitConverter class? It will only work on little endian hardware I believe, but it should handle most of the heavy lifting for you.

The following is a contrived example that illustrates the use of the class:

        if(BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
        {
            int someInteger = 100;
            byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(someInteger);
            int convertedFromBytes = BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, 0);
        }

Answer 4

Depending on what you're actually doing, you could rely on letting the framework handle the details of endianness for you by using IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder and the corresponding reverse function. Then just use the BitConverter class to go to and from byte arrays.