Delphi, Copy string to Byte array

Question

what i have works, but im looking if there is a faster way to copy a string into a pByteArray

from sysutils

  PByteArray = ^TByteArray;
  TByteArray = array[0..32767] of Byte;

assume a and s are setup correctly

 a:   pByteArray;
 s:   string;

is there a fast way to do this, ie something like copy

  for i := 1 TO Length(s) - 1 do
   a^[i] := Ord(s[i]);

delphi 7

Answer 1

Beware using the Move. If you are using Delphi 2009, it may fail. Instead, use this:

Move(s[1], a^, Length(s) * SizeOf(Char));

You may also use class TEncoding in SysUtils.pas (Delphi 2009/2010++ only) to perform the task.

Answer 2

You can simply cast it:

  a := @s[1];

The other way around is:

  s := PChar(a);