How to convert integer to array of bytes?

Question

I have sort of action listener in ST code (similar to Pascal), where it returns me an integer. Then i have a CANopen function, which allows me to send data only in Array of bytes. How can i convert from these types?

Thanks for answer.

Answer 1

You can use the Move standard function to block-copy the integer into an array of four bytes:

var
    MyInteger: Integer;
    MyArray: array [0..3] of Byte;
begin
    // Move the integer into the array
    Move(MyInteger, MyArray, 4);

    // This may be subject to endianness, use SwapEndian (and related) as needed

    // To get the integer back from the array
    Move(MyArray, MyInteger, 4);
end;

PS: I haven't coded in Pascal for a few months now so there might be mistakes, feel free to fix.

Answer 2

Here are solutions working with Free Pascal.

First, with "absolute":

var x: longint;
    a: array[1..4] of byte absolute x;

begin
x := 12345678;
writeln(a[1], ' ', a[2], ' ', a[3], ' ', a[4])
end.

With pointers:

type tarray = array[1..4] of byte;
     parray = ^tarray;

var x: longint;
    p: parray;

begin
x := 12345678;
p := parray(@x);
writeln(p^[1], ' ', p^[2], ' ', p^[3], ' ', p^[4])
end.

With binary operators:

var x: longint;

begin
x := 12345678;
writeln(x and $ff, ' ', (x shr 8) and $ff, ' ',
        (x shr 16) and $ff, ' ', (x shr 24) and $ff)
end.

With record:

type rec = record
              case kind: boolean of
              true: (int: longint);
              false: (arr: array[1..4] of byte)
           end;

var x: rec;

begin
x.int := 12345678;
writeln(x.arr[1], ' ', x.arr[2], ' ', x.arr[3], ' ', x.arr[4])
end.

Answer 3

You can also use a variant record, which is the traditional method of deliberately aliasing variables in Pascal without using pointers.

type Tselect = (selectBytes, selectInt);
type bytesInt = record
                 case Tselect of
                   selectBytes: (B : array[0..3] of byte);
                   selectInt:   (I : word);
                 end; {record}

var myBytesInt : bytesInt;

The nice thing about the variant record is that, once you set it up, you can freely access the variable in either form without having to call any conversion routines. For example "myBytesInt.I:=$1234" if you want to access it as an integer, or "myBytesInt.B[0]:=4" etc if you want you access it as a byte array.

Answer 4

You can do something like this :

byte array[4];
int source;

array[0] = source & 0xFF000000;
array[1] = source & 0x00FF0000;
array[2] = source & 0x0000FF00;
array[3] = source & 0x000000FF;

Then if you glue array[1] to array[4] together you will get your source integer;

Edit : corrected the mask.

Edit : As Thomas pointed out in the comments -> you still have to bit shift the resulting value of ANDing to LSB to get correct values.