BitConverter.GetBytes vs Convert.ToByte - c#

Can anyone shine some light of the differences between these two? I don't know which one to use and can't really find any information on the differences of the two.

BitConverter.GetBytes Converts the specified data to an array of bytes. Whereas: Convert.ToByte Converts a specified value to an 8-bit unsigned integer.
You want to simply convert a number or string representation into an 8-bit unsigned integer? Then Convert.ToByte is what you need. If you want to get an array of bytes, maybe the number you're trying to represent can't be stored in 8-bits, then BitConverter.GetBytes is the method for you!
Source:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.bitconverter.getbytes(v=vs.110).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.convert.tobyte(v=vs.110).aspx

Related

BigInteger.Parse() trouble reading in large numbers

Presently I am attempting to do this challenge (http://cryptopals.com/sets/1/challenges/1) and I am having some trouble completing the task in C#. I can not seem to parse the number into a big integer.
So code looks like below:
string output = "";
BigInteger hexValue = BigInteger.Parse("49276d206b696c6c696e6720796f757220627261696e206c696b65206120706f69736f6e6f7573206d757368726f6f6");
output = Convert.ToBase64String(hexValue.ToByteArray());
Console.WriteLine(hexValue);
Console.WriteLine(output);
Console.ReadKey();
return "";
And at present the problem I am getting is when I run the program it fails with the error
System.FormatException: 'The value could not be parsed.' and I am not entirely sure why.
So, what is the appropriate way to get a large integer from a string into a BigInt?
The initial problem
The BigInteger.Parse method expects the value to be decimal, not hex. You can "fix" that by passing in NumberStyles.HexNumber.
The bigger problem with using BigInteger for this
If you're just trying to convert a string of hex digits into bytes, I would avoid using BigInteger at all. For one thing, you could end up with problems if the original byte array started with zeroes, for example. The zeroes wouldn't be in the resulting byte array. (Sample input: "0001" - you want to get two bytes out, but you'll only get one, after persuading it to parse hex.)
Even if you don't lose any information, the byte[] you receive from BigInteger.ToByteArray() isn't what you were probably expecting. For example, consider this code, which just converts the data to byte[] and back to hex via BitConverter:
BigInteger bigInt = BigInteger.Parse("1234567890ABCDEF", NumberStyles.HexNumber);
byte[] bytes = bigInt.ToByteArray();
Console.WriteLine(BitConverter.ToString(bytes));
The output of that is "EF-CD-AB-90-78-56-34-12" - because BigInteger.ToByteArray returns the data in little-endian order:
The individual bytes in the array returned by this method appear in little-endian order. That is, the lower-order bytes of the value precede the higher-order bytes.
That's not what you want - because it means the last part of the original string is the first part of the byte array, etc.
Avoiding BigInteger altogether
Instead, parse the data directly to a byte array, as in this question, or this one, or various others. I won't reproduce the code here, but it's simple enough, with different options depending on whether you're trying to create simple source code or an efficient program.
General advice on conversions
In general it's a good idea to avoid intermediate representations of data unless you're absolutely convinced that you won't lose information in the process - as you would here. It's fine to convert the hex string to a byte array before converting the result to base64, because that's not a lossy transformation.
So your conversions are:
String (hex) to BigInteger: lossy (in the context of leading 0s being significant, as they are in this situation)
BigInteger to byte[]: not lossy
byte[] to String (base64): not lossy
I'm recommending:
String (hex) to byte[]: not lossy (assuming you have an even number of nybbles to convert, which is generally a reasonable assumption)
byte[] to String (base64): not lossy
Use NumberStyles.HexNumber:
BigInteger.Parse("49276d206b696c6c696e6720796f757220627261696e206c696b65206120706f69736f6e6f7573206d757368726f6f6",
NumberStyles.HexNumber,
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
If your number is supposed to be always positive, add a leading zero to your string.
The problem is that the input is not decimal but hexadecimal, therefore you need to pass an additional parameter for parsing:
BigInteger number = BigInteger.Parse(
hexString,
NumberStyles.AllowHexSpecifier);

Converting Uint64 to 5 bytes and vice versa in c#

I have an application that expects 5 bytes that is derived of a number. Right now I am using Uint32 which is 4 bytes. I been told to make a class that uses a byte and a Uint32. However, im not sure how to combine them since they are numbers.
I figured the best way may be to use a Uint64 and convert it down to 5 bytes. However, I am not sure how that can be done. I need to be able to convert it to 5 bytes and a separate function in the class to convert it back to a Uint64.
Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to do this?
Thank you
Use BitConverter.GetBytes and then just remove the three bytes you don't need.
To convert it back use BitConverter.ToUInt64 remembering that you'll have to first pad your byte array with three extra (zero) bytes.
Just watch out for endianness. You may need to reverse your array if the application you are sending these bytes to expects the opposite endianess. Also the endianess will dictate whether you need to add/remove bytes from the start or end of the array. (check BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)

Int64 seems too short in C#

I'm trying to write the largest int64 value to the command line. I tried using 0x1111111111111111 which is 16 ones, and visual studio says that is int64. I would have assumed that would be int16. What am missing here?
0x is the prefix for hexadecimal and not binary literals. This means that the binary representation of your number is 0001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001000100010001
There are unfortunately no binary literals in C#, so you either have to do the calculation yourself (0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF) or use the Convert class, for example:
short s = Convert.ToInt16("1111111111111111", 2); // "2" for binary
In order to just get the largest Int64 number, you don't need to perform any calculations of your own, as it is already available for you in this field:
Int64.MaxValue
The literal 0x1111111111111111 is a hexadecimal number. Each hexadecimal digit can be represented using four bits so with 16 hexadecimal digits you need 4*16 = 64 bits. You probably intended to write the binary number 1111111111111111. You can convert from a binary literal string to an integer using the following code:
Convert.ToInt16("1111111111111111", 2)
This will return the desired number (-1).
To get the largest Int64 you can use Int64.MaxValue (0x7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF) or if you really want the unsigned value you can use UInt64.MaxValue (0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF).
The largest Int64 value is Int64.MaxValue. To print this in hex, try:
Console.WriteLine(Int64.MaxValue.ToString("X"));

BitConverter VS ToString for Hex

Just wondering if someone could explain why the two following lines of code return "different" results? What causes the reversed values? Is this something to do with endianness?
int.MaxValue.ToString("X") //Result: 7FFFFFFF
BitConverter.ToString(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.MaxValue)) //Result: FF-FF-FF-7F
int.MaxValue.ToString("X") outputs 7FFFFFFF, that is, the number 2147483647 as a whole.
On the other hand, BitConverter.GetBytes returns an array of bytes representing 2147483647 in memory. On your machine, this number is stored in little-endian (highest byte last). And BitConverter.ToString operates separately on each byte, therefore not reordering output to give the same as above, thus preserving the memory order.
However the two values are the same : 7F-FF-FF-FF for int.MaxValue, in big-endian, and FF-FF-FF-7F for BitConverter, in little-endian. Same number.
I would guess because GetBytes returns an array of bytes which BitConverter.ToString formatted - in my opinion - rather nicely
And also keep in mind that the bitwise represantattion may be different from the value! This depends where the most signigicant byte sits!
hth

byte array to double conversion in c#

I have an array of three bytes, I want to convert array into double using c#. Kindly guide me.
Well, that depends on what you want the conversion to do.
You can convert 8 bytes (in the right format) into a double using BitConverter.ToDouble - but with only three bytes it's a bit odd - after all, a double has 64 bits of information, normally. How do those three bytes represent a number? What's the format, basically? When you've figured that out, the rest may well be easy.
Well a double is an array of 8 bytes, so with 3 bytes you won't have all the possible values.
To do what you want:
var myBytes[] = {0,0,0,0,0,1,1,2}; //assume you pad your array with enough zeros to make it 8 bytes.
var myDouble = BitConverter.ToDouble(myBytes,0);
Depends on what exactly is stored in the bytes, but you might be able to just pad the array with 5 bytes all containing 0 and then use BitConverter.ToDouble.

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