Cast int to char array in C

Question

Is is possible to convert int to "string" in C just using casting? Without any functions like atoi() or sprintf()?

What I want would be like this:

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    int i = 500;
    char c[4];

    c = (char)i;
    i = 0;
    i = (int)c;
}

The reason is that I need to generate two random ints (0 to 500) and send both as one string in a message queue to another process. The other process receives the message and do the LCM.

I know how to do with atoi() and itoa(). But my teachers wants just using cast.

Also, why isn't the following possible to compile?

typedef struct
{
    int x;
    int y;
} int_t;

typedef struct
{
    char x[sizeof(int)];
    char y[sizeof(int)];
} char_t;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int_t rand_int;
    char_t rand_char;

    rand_int.x = (rand() % 501);
    rand_int.y = (rand() % 501);

    rand_char = (char_t)rand_int;
}

Answer 1

Of course it's not possible, because an array is an object and needs storage. Casts result in values, not objects. Some would say the whole point/power of C is that you have control over the storage and lifetime of objects.

The proper way to generate a string containing a decimal representation of an integer is to create storage for it yourself and use snprintf:

char buf[sizeof(int)*3+2];
snprintf(buf, sizeof buf, "%d", n);