Convert byte array to short array in C#

Question

I'm currently reading a file and wanted to be able to convert the array of bytes obtained from the file into a short array.

How would I go about doing this?

Answer 1

Use Buffer.BlockCopy.

Create the short array at half the size of the byte array, and copy the byte data in:

short[] sdata = new short[(int)Math.Ceiling(data.Length / 2)];
Buffer.BlockCopy(data, 0, sdata, 0, data.Length);

It is the fastest method by far.

Answer 2

One possibility is using Enumerable.Select:

byte[] bytes;
var shorts = bytes.Select(b => (short)b).ToArray();

Another is to use Array.ConvertAll:

byte[] bytes;
var shorts = Array.ConvertAll(bytes, b => (short)b);