C++ int to byte array

Question

I have this method in my java code which returns byte array for given int:

private static byte[] intToBytes(int paramInt) {      byte[] arrayOfByte = new byte[4];      ByteBuffer localByteBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(4);      localByteBuffer.putInt(paramInt);      for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)          arrayOfByte[(3 - i)] = localByteBuffer.array()[i];      return arrayOfByte; } 

Can someone give me tip how can i convert that method to C++?

Answer 1

You don't need a whole function for this; a simple cast will suffice:

int x; static_cast<char*>(static_cast<void*>(&x)); 

Any object in C++ can be reinterpreted as an array of bytes. If you want to actually make a copy of the bytes into a separate array, you can use std::copy:

int x; char bytes[sizeof x]; std::copy(static_cast<const char*>(static_cast<const void*>(&x)),           static_cast<const char*>(static_cast<const void*>(&x)) + sizeof x,           bytes); 

Neither of these methods takes byte ordering into account, but since you can reinterpret the int as an array of bytes, it is trivial to perform any necessary modifications yourself.