Can you explain about how to convert the last 3 bytes of data from unsigned integer to a character array?
Example:
unsigned int unint = some value;
unsigned char array[3];
It's more difficult if you have to convert it to an array, but if you just want to access the individual bytes, then you can do
char* bytes = (char*)&unint;
If you really do want to make an array (and therefore make a copy of the last 3 bytes, not leave them in place) you do
unsigned char bytes[3]; // or char, but unsigned char is better
bytes[0] = unint >> 16 & 0xFF;
bytes[1] = unint >> 8 & 0xFF;
bytes[2] = unint & 0xFF;
You can do using it the bitwise right shift operator:
array[0] = unint;
array[1] = unint >> 8;
array[2] = unint >> 16;
The least signifcant byte of uint is stored in the first element of the array.
Depending on your needs, you may prefer an union:
typedef union {
unsigned int unint;
unsigned char array[3];
} byteAndInt;
or bit-shift operations:
for(int i=0; i<3; i++)
array[i] = (unint>>8*i) & 0xFF;
The former is not endian-safe.
If by last three, you mean lsb+1, lsb+2 and msb (in other words every byte other than the lsb), then you can use this.
unsigned int unint = some value;
unsigned char * array = ( (unsigned char*)&some_value ) + 1;
Related
I know that to get the number of bytes used by a variable type, you use sizeof(int) for instance. How do you get the value of the individual bytes used when you store a number with that variable type? (i.e. int x = 125.)
You have to know the number of bits (often 8) in each "byte". Then you can extract each byte in turn by ANDing the int with the appropriate mask. Imagine that an int is 32 bits, then to get 4 bytes out of the_int:
int a = (the_int >> 24) & 0xff; // high-order (leftmost) byte: bits 24-31
int b = (the_int >> 16) & 0xff; // next byte, counting from left: bits 16-23
int c = (the_int >> 8) & 0xff; // next byte, bits 8-15
int d = the_int & 0xff; // low-order byte: bits 0-7
And there you have it: each byte is in the low-order 8 bits of a, b, c, and d.
You can get the bytes by using some pointer arithmetic:
int x = 12578329; // 0xBFEE19
for (size_t i = 0; i < sizeof(x); ++i) {
// Convert to unsigned char* because a char is 1 byte in size.
// That is guaranteed by the standard.
// Note that is it NOT required to be 8 bits in size.
unsigned char byte = *((unsigned char *)&x + i);
printf("Byte %d = %u\n", i, (unsigned)byte);
}
On my machine (Intel x86-64), the output is:
Byte 0 = 25 // 0x19
Byte 1 = 238 // 0xEE
Byte 2 = 191 // 0xBF
Byte 3 = 0 // 0x00
You could make use of a union but keep in mind that the byte ordering is processor dependent and is called Endianness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
union my_int {
int val;
uint8_t bytes[sizeof(int)];
};
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
union my_int mi;
int idx;
mi.val = 128;
for (idx = 0; idx < sizeof(int); idx++)
printf("byte %d = %hhu\n", idx, mi.bytes[idx]);
return 0;
}
If you want to get that information, say for:
int value = -278;
(I selected that value because it isn't very interesting for 125 - the least significant byte is 125 and the other bytes are all 0!)
You first need a pointer to that value:
int* pointer = &value;
You can now typecast that to a 'char' pointer which is only one byte, and get the individual bytes by indexing.
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(value); i++) {
char thisbyte = *( ((char*) pointer) + i );
// do whatever processing you want.
}
Note that the order of bytes for ints and other data types depends on your system - look up 'big-endian' vs 'little-endian'.
This should work:
int x = 125;
unsigned char *bytes = (unsigned char *) (&x);
unsigned char byte0 = bytes[0];
unsigned char byte1 = bytes[1];
...
unsigned char byteN = bytes[sizeof(int) - 1];
But be aware that the byte order of integers is platform dependent.
What is the FASTEST way, using bit operators to return the number, represented with 3 different unsigned char variables ?
unsigned char byte1 = 200;
unsigned char byte2 = 40;
unsigned char byte3 = 33;
unsigned long number = byte1 + byte2 * 256 + byte3 * 256 * 256;
is the slowest way possible.
Just shift each one into place, and OR them together:
#include <stdint.h>
int main(void)
{
uint8_t a = 0xAB, b = 0xCD, c = 0xEF;
/*
* 'a' must be first cast to uint32_t because of the implicit conversion
* to int, which is only guaranteed to be at least 16 bits.
* (Thanks Matt McNabb and Tim Čas.)
*/
uint32_t i = ((uint32_t)a << 16) | (b << 8) | c;
printf("0x%X\n", i);
return 0;
}
Do note however, that almost any modern compiler will replace a multiplication by a power of two with a bit-shift of the appropriate amount.
The fastest way would be the direct memory writing, assuming you know the endian of your system (here the assumption is little endian):
unsigned char byte1 = 200;
unsigned char byte2 = 40;
unsigned char byte3 = 33;
unsigned long number = 0;
((unsigned char*)&number)[0] = byte1;
((unsigned char*)&number)[1] = byte2;
((unsigned char*)&number)[2] = byte3;
Or if you don't mind doing some excercise, you can do something like:
union
{
unsigned long ulongVal;
unsigned char chars[4]; // In case your long is 32bits
} a;
and then by assigning:
a.chars[0] = byte1;
a.chars[1] = byte2;
a.chars[2] = byte3;
a.chars[3] = 0;
you will read the final value from a.ulongVal. This will spare extra memory operations.
I know that to get the number of bytes used by a variable type, you use sizeof(int) for instance. How do you get the value of the individual bytes used when you store a number with that variable type? (i.e. int x = 125.)
You have to know the number of bits (often 8) in each "byte". Then you can extract each byte in turn by ANDing the int with the appropriate mask. Imagine that an int is 32 bits, then to get 4 bytes out of the_int:
int a = (the_int >> 24) & 0xff; // high-order (leftmost) byte: bits 24-31
int b = (the_int >> 16) & 0xff; // next byte, counting from left: bits 16-23
int c = (the_int >> 8) & 0xff; // next byte, bits 8-15
int d = the_int & 0xff; // low-order byte: bits 0-7
And there you have it: each byte is in the low-order 8 bits of a, b, c, and d.
You can get the bytes by using some pointer arithmetic:
int x = 12578329; // 0xBFEE19
for (size_t i = 0; i < sizeof(x); ++i) {
// Convert to unsigned char* because a char is 1 byte in size.
// That is guaranteed by the standard.
// Note that is it NOT required to be 8 bits in size.
unsigned char byte = *((unsigned char *)&x + i);
printf("Byte %d = %u\n", i, (unsigned)byte);
}
On my machine (Intel x86-64), the output is:
Byte 0 = 25 // 0x19
Byte 1 = 238 // 0xEE
Byte 2 = 191 // 0xBF
Byte 3 = 0 // 0x00
You could make use of a union but keep in mind that the byte ordering is processor dependent and is called Endianness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
union my_int {
int val;
uint8_t bytes[sizeof(int)];
};
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
union my_int mi;
int idx;
mi.val = 128;
for (idx = 0; idx < sizeof(int); idx++)
printf("byte %d = %hhu\n", idx, mi.bytes[idx]);
return 0;
}
If you want to get that information, say for:
int value = -278;
(I selected that value because it isn't very interesting for 125 - the least significant byte is 125 and the other bytes are all 0!)
You first need a pointer to that value:
int* pointer = &value;
You can now typecast that to a 'char' pointer which is only one byte, and get the individual bytes by indexing.
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(value); i++) {
char thisbyte = *( ((char*) pointer) + i );
// do whatever processing you want.
}
Note that the order of bytes for ints and other data types depends on your system - look up 'big-endian' vs 'little-endian'.
This should work:
int x = 125;
unsigned char *bytes = (unsigned char *) (&x);
unsigned char byte0 = bytes[0];
unsigned char byte1 = bytes[1];
...
unsigned char byteN = bytes[sizeof(int) - 1];
But be aware that the byte order of integers is platform dependent.
I need to be able to be able to send a numeric value to a remote socket server and so I need to encode possible numbers as bytes.
The numbers are up to 64 bit, ie requiring up to 8 bytes. The very first byte is the type, and it is always a number under 255 so fits in 1 byte.
For example, if the number was 8 and the type was a 32 bit unsigned integer then the type would be 7 which would be copied to the first (leftmost) byte and then the next 4 bytes would be encoded with the actual number (8 in this case).
So in terms of bytes:
byte1: 7
byte2: 0
byte3: 0
byte4: 0
byte5: 8
I hope this is making sense.
Does this code to perform this encoding look like a reasonable approach?
int type = 7;
uint32_t number = 8;
unsigned char* msg7 = (unsigned char*)malloc(5);
unsigned char* p = msg7;
*p++ = type;
for (int i = sizeof(uint32_t) - 1; i >= 0; --i)
*p++ = number & 0xFF << (i * 8);
You'll want to explicitly cast type to avoid a warning:
*p++ = (unsigned char) type;
You want to encode the number with most significant byte first, but you're shifting in the wrong direction. The loop should be:
for (int i = sizeof(uint32_t) - 1; i >= 0; --i)
*p++ = (unsigned char) ((number >> (i * 8)) & 0xFF);
It looks good otherwise.
Your code is reasonable (although I'd use uint8_t, since you are not using the bytes as “characters”, and Peter is of course right wrt the typo), and unlike the commonly found alternatives like
uint32_t number = 8;
uint8_t* p = (uint8_t *) &number;
or
union {
uint32_t number;
uint8_t bytes[4];
} val;
val.number = 8;
// access val.bytes[0] .. val.bytes[3]
is even guaranteed to work. The first alternative will probably work in a debug build, but more and more compilers might break it when optimizing, while the second one tends to work in practice just about everywhere, but is explicitly marked as a bad thing™ by the language standard.
I would drop the loop and use a "caller allocates" interface, like
int convert_32 (unsigned char *target, size_t size, uint32_t val)
{
if (size < 5) return -1;
target[0] = 7;
target[1] = (val >> 24) & 0xff;
target[2] = (val >> 16) & 0xff;
target[3] = (val >> 8) & 0xff;
target[4] = (val) & 0xff;
return 5;
}
This makes it easier for the caller to concatenate multiple fragments into one big binary packet and keep track of the used/needed buffer size.
Do you mean?
for (int i = sizeof(uint32_t) - 1; i >= 0; --i)
*p++ = (number >> (i * 8)) & 0xFF;
Another option to might be to do
// this would work on Big endian systems, e.g. sparc
struct unsignedMsg {
unsigned char type;
uint32_t value;
}
unsignedMsg msg;
msg.type = 7;
msg.value = number;
unsigned char *p = (unsigned char *) &msg;
or
unsigned char* p =
p[0] = 7;
*((uint32_t *) &(p[1])) = number;
This question may looks silly, but please guide me
I have a function to convert long data to char array
void ConvertLongToChar(char *pSrc, char *pDest)
{
pDest[0] = pSrc[0];
pDest[1] = pSrc[1];
pDest[2] = pSrc[2];
pDest[3] = pSrc[3];
}
And I call the above function like this
long lTemp = (long) (fRxPower * 1000);
ConvertLongToChar ((char *)&lTemp, pBuffer);
Which works fine.
I need a similar function to reverse the procedure. Convert char array to long.
I cannot use atol or similar functions.
You can do:
union {
unsigned char c[4];
long l;
} conv;
conv.l = 0xABC;
and access c[0] c[1] c[2] c[3]. This is good as it wastes no memory and is very fast because there is no shifting or any assignment besides the initial one and it works both ways.
Leaving the burden of matching the endianness with your other function to you, here's one way:
unsigned long int l = pdest[0] | (pdest[1] << 8) | (pdest[2] << 16) | (pdest[3] << 24);
Just to be safe, here's the corresponding other direction:
unsigned char pdest[4];
unsigned long int l;
pdest[0] = l & 0xFF;
pdest[1] = (l >> 8) & 0xFF;
pdest[2] = (l >> 16) & 0xFF;
pdest[3] = (l >> 24) & 0xFF;
Going from char[4] to long and back is entirely reversible; going from long to char[4] and back is reversible for values up to 2^32-1.
Note that all this is only well-defined for unsigned types.
(My example is little endian if you read pdest from left to right.)
Addendum: I'm also assuming that CHAR_BIT == 8. In general, substitute multiples of 8 by multiples of CHAR_BIT in the code.
A simple way would be to use memcpy:
char * buffer = ...;
long l;
memcpy(&l, buff, sizeof(long));
That does not take endianness into account, however, so beware if you have to share data between multiple computers.
If you mean to treat sizeof (long) bytes memory as a single long, then you should do the below:
char char_arr[sizeof(long)];
long l;
memcpy (&l, char_arr, sizeof (long));
This thing can be done by pasting each bytes of the long using bit shifting ans pasting, like below.
l = 0;
l |= (char_arr[0]);
l |= (char_arr[1] << 8);
l |= (char_arr[2] << 16);
l |= (char_arr[3] << 24);
If you mean to convert "1234\0" string into 1234L then you should
l = strtol (char_arr, NULL, 10); /* to interpret the base as decimal */
Does this work:
#include<stdio.h>
long ConvertCharToLong(char *pSrc) {
int i=1;
long result = (int)pSrc[0] - '0';
while(i<strlen(pSrc)){
result = result * 10 + ((int)pSrc[i] - '0');
++i;
}
return result;
}
int main() {
char* str = "34878";
printf("The answer is %d",ConvertCharToLong(str));
return 0;
}
This is dirty but it works:
unsigned char myCharArray[8];
// Put some data in myCharArray here...
long long integer = *((long long*) myCharArray);
char charArray[8]; //ideally, zero initialise
unsigned long long int combined = *(unsigned long long int *) &charArray[0];
Be wary of strings that are null terminated, as you will end up copying any bytes beyond the null terminator into combined; thus in the above assignment, charArray needs to be fully zero-initialised for a "clean" conversion.
Just found this having tried more than one of the above to no avail :=( :
char * vIn = "0";
long vOut = strtol(vIn,NULL,10);
Worked perfectly for me.
To give credit where it is due, this is where I found it:
https://www.convertdatatypes.com/Convert-char-Array-to-long-in-C.html