Convert from byte* to byte[]

Question

How do I convert a pointer to a byte array?

The first byte indicates the number of bytes to follow.

Answer 1

The safe thing to do is to make a copy of the data pointed to.

If you have a byte* then you can of course just write the code yourself:

byte* source = whatever;
int size = source[0]; // first byte is size;
byte[] target = new byte[size];
for (int i = 0; i < size; ++i)
    target[i] = source[i+1];

Easy peasy.

If instead of a byte* you have an IntPtr then you can use this helpful method:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms146631.aspx

There are lots of helpful methods on the Marshal class.

Answer 2

Well, the byte* isn't the array object. You can get the address of the data (using fixed etc), but an arbitrary byte* does not have to be the start of the data - it could be at offset 17, for example.

So I would recommend either:

• pass the byte[] around instead
• (or) create a new byte[] and copy over the data you want