Convert int bits to float bits

Question

I\'m in the process of creating a buffer that will read/write in a banner in which I can completely eradicate the problems that comes with TCP-Segmentation. The only problem

Answer 1

using the System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe nuget package

Unsafe.As<float, int>(ref value);

Will convert a float to an int

and

Unsafe.As<int, float>(ref value);

will convert an int to a float

Answer 2

Vexingly, if you were using double and long, there is BitConverter.DoubleToInt64Bits and BitConverter.Int64BitsToDouble. I have genuinely no idea why there aren't Single / Int32 equivalents, as it forces you to create a pointless byte[] on the heap (it doesn't even let you pass in a pre-existing buffer).

If you are happy to use unsafe code, you can actually do it all in a simply data thunk, without any method calls or arrays:

public static unsafe int SingleToInt32Bits(float value) {
    return *(int*)(&value);
}
public static unsafe float Int32BitsToSingle(int value) {
    return *(float*)(&value);
}

Answer 3

The keyword float is an alias for the data type System.Single.

You can use the BitConverter.ToSingle to convert four bytes into a float.

Answer 4

Targeting .NET Core we are now finally able to simply use BitConverter.SingleToInt32Bits() and BitConverter.Int32BitsToSingle()!

Answer 5

Use the BitConverter.ToSingle method:

int i = ...;
float f = BitConverter.ToSingle(BitConverter.GetBytes(i), 0);

Answer 6

BitConverter creates some overhead and unnecessary buffer. This solution is almost as fast as unsafe conversion:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)]
struct FloatToInt 
{
    [FieldOffset(0)]private float f;
    [FieldOffset(0)]private int i;
    private static FloatToInt inst = new FloatToInt();
    public static int Convert(float value)
    {
        inst.f = value;
        return t.i;
    }
}