How to convert an int8_t array to int32_t array in C

Question

I have an array and I want to convert it to an int32_t array.

I tried the code below.

int32_t const_data[11];
int8_t buffer[44];

    int k = 0;
    while (k < 11) {
        for (int j = 0; j < 44; j++) {
                const_data[k] = bf.buffer[j];
                k++;
        }
    }

In what endian form? Bytes and multi-byte integers are not necessarily interchangeable. — tadman
– tadman, Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 16:25
How is that code supposed to work? It appears to be unrelated to your stated aim. What is size_of_const() and what is the +12 offset for? Also 0001 0004 0003 is not an unambiguous description of the content - 4 digit octal values suggests 12 bit value not uint8_t - or are these character strings representing integers and not 8 bit integers at all? Too much ambiguity to post an answer. — Clifford
– Clifford, Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 16:28
@Clifford good point about the octal values but I assume he meant 0x0001, 0x0004, etc — bigwillydos
– bigwillydos, Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 16:52
Are you just trying to get the compiler to treat buffer as int32_t*? In this case just cast:int32_t* const_data = (int32_t*) buffer — Nomios
– Nomios, Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 17:43

bigwillydos · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-19 21:01:24Z

4

The easiest and most straight forward way is to use a union

#define array_size_int32    11
#define array_size_int8     44

typedef union{
    int32_t const_data[array_size_int32];
    int8_t buffer[array_size_int8];
}my_union_t;

Example usage:

/* initialize union members */
my_union_t my_union = {
    .const_data = {
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
        0x12345678,
    },
};

Example way to print:

uint8_t i;

for(i = 0; i < array_size_int8; i++){

    /* mask off sign extension bits */
    printf("my_union.buffer[%d] = %x\n", i, my_union.buffer[i] & 0xff);

}

You can try the code out here

EDIT:

I should add that this works because the memory size needed to allocate either array is the same and you'll run in to problems if you change the #define's without taking that in to consideration.

For example,

#define array_size_int32    10    //40 bytes
#define array_size_int8     45    //45 bytes

answered Jun 19, 2019 at 21:01

bigwillydos

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3 Comments

Mehmet Berk Cetin Over a year ago

So this converts my byte_t array to word_t array but in an opposite way. So if byte_t array is 00 00 00 04. Then my word_t array becomes 40000000. How can I fix this so that my word_t array can be 00000004. Thank you!

bigwillydos Over a year ago

It's actually 04 00 00 00. When you are printing, it doesn't show you the leading zero unless you specify it to do so (e.g. printf("%08x\n", my_union.const_data[0]);) And this has to do with endianness. I'll explain more in the following comment.

bigwillydos Over a year ago

If 0x00000004 is your 32 bit value for my_union.const_data[0], then 0x04 is the least significant byte, and on a little endian machine this will get stored in the lowest position of my_union.buffer (position 0). If you set my_union.buffer[0] = 0x00, my_union.buffer[1] = 0x00, my_union.buffer[2] = 0x00, my_union.buffer[4] = 0x04, then my_union.const_data[0] is going to print 0x04000000 because 0x04 is actually the most significant byte. If you want 0x04 to be the least significant byte, then store it at my_union.buffer[0].

Manthan Tilva · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-19 17:50:55Z

-1

Below is solution which I used in past for similar problem.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
int main(){
    int8_t input[] = {0x01,0x02,0x03,0x04,0x05,0x06,0x07,0x08};
    int32_t output[10];
    int count=0;
    for(;count<sizeof(input);count+=sizeof(int32_t)/sizeof(int8_t)){
        output[count] = (int32_t)(*(int32_t*)(&input[count]));
        printf("%x:%x\n",input[count],output[count]);
    }
    return 0;
}

Note: As pointed out by @tadman in comment. You also need to consider endianness of your platform. This solution works well for my problem on platform I was working. Based on your platform you may need to tweak this.

Live Code

edited Jun 19, 2019 at 17:50

answered Jun 19, 2019 at 17:40

Manthan Tilva

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4 Comments

Mehmet Berk Cetin Over a year ago

I forgot to men that it is in C :(

Manthan Tilva Over a year ago

@bigwillydos thanks for pointing out my mistake. Updated for c.

Andrew Henle Over a year ago

output[count] = (int32_t)(*(int32_t*)(&input[count])); is a strict aliasing violation and is likely to be a misaligned access. Both of which are undefined behavior. You can not safely take a character address and treat it like another type - int32_t in this case.

bigwillydos Over a year ago

@ManthanTilva cool, removed the downvote since you corrected that, however, I have not actually reviewed your answer

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