How do I reinterpret data through a different type? (type punning confusion)

Question

#include 

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
    int a = 0x3f800000;

    std::cout << a << std::endl;

    static_assert(sizeof(float)         


        

Answer 1

Use memcpy:

memcpy(&f2, &a, sizeof(float));

If you are worried about type safety and semantics, you can easily write a wrapper:

void convert(float& x, int a) {
    memcpy(&x, &a, sizeof(float));
}

And if you want, you can make this wrapper template to satisfy your needs.