Convert byte[] to sbyte[]

Question

I tried to convert an Array from byte[] to sbyte[].

Here is my sample Array:

byte[] unsigned = { 0x00, 0xFF, 0x1F, 0x8F, 0x80 };

I already tried this:

sbyte[] signed = (sbyte[])((Array)unsigned);

But it doesn't work. There is no value in the array after this operation.

Does anybody has an better idea?

Answer 1

How about using Buffer.BlockCopy? The good thing about this answer is that avoids cast checking on a byte by byte basis. The bad thing about this answer is that avoids cast checking on a byte by byte basis.

var unsigned = new byte[] { 0x00, 0xFF, 0x1F, 0x8F, 0x80 };
var signed = new sbyte[unsigned.Length];
Buffer.BlockCopy(unsigned, 0, signed, 0, unsigned.Length);

This just copies the bytes, values above byte.MaxValue will have a negative sbyte value.

Takes two lines of code but should be quick.

Answer 2

sbyte[] signed = (sbyte[]) (Array) unsigned;

This works because byte and sbyte have the same length in memory and can be converted without the need to alter the memory representation.

This method might, however, lead to some weird bugs with the debugger. If your byte array is not very big, you can use Array.ConvertAll instead.

sbyte[] signed = Array.ConvertAll(unsigned, b => unchecked((sbyte)b));