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c# FTDI 24bit two's complement implement

I am a beginner at C# and would like some advice on how to solve the following problem:
My code read 3 byte from ADC true FTDI ic and calculating value. Problem is that sometimes I get values under zero (less than 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000) and my calculating value jump to a big number. I need to implement two's complement but I and I don't know how.
byte[] readData1 = new byte[3];
ftStatus = myFtdiDevice.Read(readData1, numBytesAvailable, ref numBytesRead); //read data from FTDI
int vrednost1 = (readData1[2] << 16) | (readData1[1] << 8) | (readData1[0]); //convert LSB MSB
int v = ((((4.096 / 16777216) * vrednost1) / 4) * 250); //calculate

Convert the data left-justified, so that your sign-bit lands in the spot your PC processor treats as a sign bit. Then right-shift back, which will automatically perform sign-extension.
int left_justified = (readData[2] << 24) | (readData[1] << 16) | (readData[0] << 8);
int result = left_justified >> 8;
Equivalently, one can mark the byte containing a sign bit as signed, so the processor will perform sign extension:
int result = (unchecked((sbyte)readData[2]) << 16) | (readData[1] << 8) | readData[0];
The second approach with a cast only works if the sign bit is already aligned left within any one of the bytes. The left-justification approach can work for arbitrary sizes, such as 18-bit two's complement readings. In this situation the cast to sbyte wouldn't do the job.
int left_justified18 = (readData[2] << 30) | (readData[1] << 22) | (readData[0] << 14);
int result18 = left_justified >> 14;

Well, the only obscure moment here is endianness (big or little). Assuming that byte[0] stands for the least significant byte you can put
private static int FromInt24(byte[] data) {
int result = (data[2] << 16) | (data[1] << 8) | data[0];
return data[2] < 128
? result // positive number
: -((~result & 0xFFFFFF) + 1); // negative number, its abs value is 2-complement
}
Demo:
byte[][] tests = new byte[][] {
new byte[] { 255, 255, 255},
new byte[] { 44, 1, 0},
};
string report = string.Join(Environment.NewLine, tests
.Select(test => $"[{string.Join(", ", test.Select(x => $"0x{x:X2}"))}] == {FromInt24(test)}"));
Console.Write(report);
Outcome:
[0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF] == -1
[0x2C, 0x01, 0x00] == 300
If you have big endianness (e.g. 300 == {0, 1, 44}) you have to swap bytes:
private static int FromInt24(byte[] data) {
int result = (data[0] << 16) | (data[1] << 8) | data[2];
return data[0] < 128
? result
: -((~result & 0xFFFFFF) + 1);
}

Convert int to little-endian formated bytes in C++ for blobId in Azure

Working with a base64 encoding for Azure (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd135726.aspx) and I dont seem to work out how to get the required string back. I'm able to do this in C# where I do the following.
int blockId = 5000;
var blockIdBytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(blockId);
Console.WriteLine(blockIdBytes);
string blockIdBase64 = Convert.ToBase64String(blockIdBytes);
Console.WriteLine(blockIdBase64);
Which prints out (in LINQPad):
Byte[] (4 items)
| 136 |
| 19 |
| 0 |
| 0 |
iBMAAA==
In Qt/C++ I tried a few aporaches, all of them returning the wrong value.
const int a = 5000;
QByteArray b;
for(int i = 0; i != sizeof(a); ++i) {
b.append((char)(a&(0xFF << i) >>i));
}
qDebug() << b.toBase64(); // "iIiIiA=="
qDebug() << QByteArray::number(a).toBase64(); // "NTAwMA=="
qDebug() << QString::number(a).toUtf8().toBase64(); // "NTAwMA=="
How can I get the same result as the C# version?

See my comment for the problem with your for loop. It's shifting by one bit more each pass, but actually it should be 8 bits. Personally, I prefer this to a loop:
b.append(static_cast<char>(a >> 24));
b.append(static_cast<char>((a >> 16) & 0xff));
b.append(static_cast<char>((a >> 8) & 0xff));
b.append(static_cast<char>(a & 0xff));
The code above is for network standard byte order (big endian). Flip the order of the four operations from last to first for little endian byte order.

I ended up doing the following:
QByteArray temp;
int blockId = 5000;
for(int i = 0; i != sizeof(blockId); i++) {
temp.append((char)(blockId >> (i * 8)));
}
qDebug() << temp.toBase64(); // "iBMAAA==" which is correct

I think this would be clearer, though may be claimed to be ill styled...
int i = 0x01020304;
char (&bytes)[4] = (char (&)[4])i;
and you can access each byte directly with bytes[0], bytes[1], ... and do what ever you want to do with them.

How to get little endian data from big endian in c# using bitConverter.ToInt32 method?

I am making application in C# which has a byte array containing hex values.
I am getting data as a big-endian but I want it as a little-endian and I am using Bitconverter.toInt32 method for converting that value to integer.
My problem is that before converting the value, I have to copy that 4 byte data into temporary array from source byte array and then reverse that temporary byte array.
I can't reverse source array because it also contains other data.
Because of that my application becomes slow.
In the code I have one source array of byte as waveData[] which contains a lot of data.
byte[] tempForTimestamp=new byte[4];
tempForTimestamp[0] = waveData[290];
tempForTimestamp[1] = waveData[289];
tempForTimestamp[2] = waveData[288];
tempForTimestamp[3] = waveData[287];
int number = BitConverter.ToInt32(tempForTimestamp, 0);
Is there any other method for that conversion?

Add a reference to System.Memory nuget and use BinaryPrimitives.ReverseEndianness().
using System.Buffers.Binary;
number = BinaryPrimitives.ReverseEndianness(number);
It supports both signed and unsigned integers (byte/short/int/long).

In modern-day Linq the one-liner and easiest to understand version would be:
int number = BitConverter.ToInt32(waveData.Skip(286).Take(4).Reverse().ToArray(), 0);
You could also...
byte[] tempForTimestamp = new byte[4];
Array.Copy(waveData, 287, tempForTimestamp, 0, 4);
Array.Reverse(tempForTimestamp);
int number = BitConverter.ToInt32(tempForTimestamp);
:)

If you know the data is big-endian, perhaps just do it manually:
int value = (buffer[i++] << 24) | (buffer[i++] << 16)
| (buffer[i++] << 8) | buffer[i++];
this will work reliably on any CPU, too. Note i is your current offset into the buffer.
Another approach would be to shuffle the array:
byte tmp = buffer[i+3];
buffer[i+3] = buffer[i];
buffer[i] = tmp;
tmp = buffer[i+2];
buffer[i+2] = buffer[i+1];
buffer[i+1] = tmp;
int value = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, i);
i += 4;
I find the first immensely more readable, and there are no branches / complex code, so it should work pretty fast too. The second could also run into problems on some platforms (where the CPU is already running big-endian).

Here you go
public static int SwapEndianness(int value)
{
var b1 = (value >> 0) & 0xff;
var b2 = (value >> 8) & 0xff;
var b3 = (value >> 16) & 0xff;
var b4 = (value >> 24) & 0xff;
return b1 << 24 | b2 << 16 | b3 << 8 | b4 << 0;
}

Declare this class:
using static System.Net.IPAddress;
namespace BigEndianExtension
{
public static class BigEndian
{
public static short ToBigEndian(this short value) => HostToNetworkOrder(value);
public static int ToBigEndian(this int value) => HostToNetworkOrder(value);
public static long ToBigEndian(this long value) => HostToNetworkOrder(value);
public static short FromBigEndian(this short value) => NetworkToHostOrder(value);
public static int FromBigEndian(this int value) => NetworkToHostOrder(value);
public static long FromBigEndian(this long value) => NetworkToHostOrder(value);
}
}
Example, create a form with a button and a multiline textbox:
using BigEndianExtension;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
short int16 = 0x1234;
int int32 = 0x12345678;
long int64 = 0x123456789abcdef0;
string text = string.Format("LE:{0:X4}\r\nBE:{1:X4}\r\n", int16, int16.ToBigEndian());
text += string.Format("LE:{0:X8}\r\nBE:{1:X8}\r\n", int32, int32.ToBigEndian());
text += string.Format("LE:{0:X16}\r\nBE:{1:X16}\r\n", int64, int64.ToBigEndian());
textBox1.Text = text;
}
//Some code...

The most straightforward way is to use the BinaryPrimitives.ReadInt32BigEndian(ReadOnlySpan) Method introduced in .NET Standard 2.1
var number = BinaryPrimitives.ReadInt32BigEndian(waveData[297..291]);

If you won't ever again need that reversed, temporary array, you could just create it as you pass the parameter, instead of making four assignments. For example:
int i = 287;
int value = BitConverter.ToInt32({
waveData(i + 3),
waveData(i + 2),
waveData(i + 1),
waveData(i)
}, 0);

I use the following helper functions
public static Int16 ToInt16(byte[] data, int offset)
{
if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
return BitConverter.ToInt16(BitConverter.IsLittleEndian ? data.Skip(offset).Take(2).Reverse().ToArray() : data, 0);
return BitConverter.ToInt16(data, offset);
}
public static Int32 ToInt32(byte[] data, int offset)
{
if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
return BitConverter.ToInt32(BitConverter.IsLittleEndian ? data.Skip(offset).Take(4).Reverse().ToArray() : data, 0);
return BitConverter.ToInt32(data, offset);
}
public static Int64 ToInt64(byte[] data, int offset)
{
if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
return BitConverter.ToInt64(BitConverter.IsLittleEndian ? data.Skip(offset).Take(8).Reverse().ToArray() : data, 0);
return BitConverter.ToInt64(data, offset);
}

You can also use Jon Skeet "Misc Utils" library, available at https://jonskeet.uk/csharp/miscutil/
His library has many utility functions. For Big/Little endian conversions you can check the MiscUtil/Conversion/EndianBitConverter.cs file.
var littleEndianBitConverter = new MiscUtil.Conversion.LittleEndianBitConverter();
littleEndianBitConverter.ToInt64(bytes, offset);
var bigEndianBitConverter = new MiscUtil.Conversion.BigEndianBitConverter();
bigEndianBitConverter.ToInt64(bytes, offset);
His software is from 2009 but I guess it's still relevant.

I dislike BitConverter, because (as Marc Gravell answered) it is specced to rely on system endianness, meaning you technically have to do a system endianness check every time you use BitConverter to ensure you don't have to reverse the array. And usually, with saved files, you generally know the endianness you're trying to read, and that might not be the same. You might just be handling file formats with big-endian values, too, like, for instance, PNG chunks.
Because of that, I just wrote my own methods for this, which take a byte array, the read offset and read length as arguments, as well as a boolean to specify the endianness handling, and which uses bit shifting for efficiency:
public static UInt64 ReadIntFromByteArray(Byte[] data, Int32 startIndex, Int32 bytes, Boolean littleEndian)
{
Int32 lastByte = bytes - 1;
if (data.Length < startIndex + bytes)
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("startIndex", "Data array is too small to read a " + bytes + "-byte value at offset " + startIndex + ".");
UInt64 value = 0;
for (Int32 index = 0; index < bytes; index++)
{
Int32 offs = startIndex + (littleEndian ? index : lastByte - index);
value |= (((UInt64)data[offs]) << (8 * index));
}
return value;
}
This code can handle any value between 1 and 8 bytes, both little-endian and big-endian. The only small usage peculiarity is that you need to both give the amount of bytes to read, and need to specifically cast the result to the type you want.
Example from some code where I used it to read the header of some proprietary image type:
Int16 imageWidth = (Int16) ReadIntFromByteArray(fileData, hdrOffset, 2, true);
Int16 imageHeight = (Int16) ReadIntFromByteArray(fileData, hdrOffset + 2, 2, true);
This will read two consecutive 16-bit integers off an array, as signed little-endian values. You can of course just make a bunch of overload functions for all possibilities, like this:
public Int16 ReadInt16FromByteArrayLe(Byte[] data, Int32 startIndex)
{
return (Int16) ReadIntFromByteArray(data, startIndex, 2, true);
}
But personally I didn't bother with that.
And, here's the same for writing bytes:
public static void WriteIntToByteArray(Byte[] data, Int32 startIndex, Int32 bytes, Boolean littleEndian, UInt64 value)
{
Int32 lastByte = bytes - 1;
if (data.Length < startIndex + bytes)
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("startIndex", "Data array is too small to write a " + bytes + "-byte value at offset " + startIndex + ".");
for (Int32 index = 0; index < bytes; index++)
{
Int32 offs = startIndex + (littleEndian ? index : lastByte - index);
data[offs] = (Byte) (value >> (8*index) & 0xFF);
}
}
The only requirement here is that you have to cast the input arg to 64-bit unsigned integer when passing it to the function.

public static unsafe int Reverse(int value)
{
byte* p = (byte*)&value;
return (*p << 24) | (p[1] << 16) | (p[2] << 8) | p[3];
}
If unsafe is allowed... Based on Marc Gravell's post

This will reverse the data inline if unsafe code is allowed...
fixed (byte* wavepointer = waveData)
new Span<byte>(wavepointer + offset, 4).Reverse();

Reading an unsigned 24-bit integer from a C# stream

What is the best way to read an unsigned 24-bit integer from a C# stream using BinaryReader?
So far I used something like this:
private long ReadUInt24(this BinaryReader reader)
{
try
{
return Math.Abs((reader.ReadByte() & 0xFF) * 256 * 256 + (reader.ReadByte() & 0xFF) * 256 + (reader.ReadByte() & 0xFF));
}
catch
{
return 0;
}
}
Is there any better way to do this?

Some quibbles with your code
You question and signature say unsigned but you return a signed value from the function
Byte in .Net is unsigned but you're using signed values for arithmetic forcing a later use of Math.Abs. Use all unsigned calculations to avoid this.
IMHO it's cleaner to shift bits using shift operators instead of multiplication.
Silently catching the exception is likely the wrong idea here.
I think it's more readable to do the following
private static uint ReadUInt24(this BinaryReader reader) {
try {
var b1 = reader.ReadByte();
var b2 = reader.ReadByte();
var b3 = reader.ReadByte();
return
(((uint)b1) << 16) |
(((uint)b2) << 8) |
((uint)b3);
}
catch {
return 0u;
}
}

This looks pretty elegant to me.
private static long ReadUInt24(this BinaryReader reader)
{
try
{
byte[] buffer = new byte[4];
reader.Read(buffer, 0, 3);
return (long)BitConverter.ToUInt32(buffer, 0);
}
catch
{
// Swallowing the exception here might not be a good idea, but that is a different topic.
return 0;
}
}

How to convert an int to a little endian byte array?

I have this function in C# to convert a little endian byte array to an integer number:
int LE2INT(byte[] data)
{
return (data[3] << 24) | (data[2] << 16) | (data[1] << 8) | data[0];
}
Now I want to convert it back to little endian..
Something like
byte[] INT2LE(int data)
{
// ...
}
Any idea?
Thanks.

The BitConverter class can be used for this, and of course, it can also be used on both little and big endian systems.
Of course, you'll have to keep track of the endianness of your data. For communications for instance, this would be defined in your protocol.
You can then use the BitConverter class to convert a data type into a byte array and vice versa, and then use the IsLittleEndian flag to see if you need to convert it on your system or not.
The IsLittleEndian flag will tell you the endianness of the system, so you can use it as follows:
This is from the MSDN page on the BitConverter class.
int value = 12345678; //your value
//Your value in bytes... in your system's endianness (let's say: little endian)
byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(value);
//Then, if we need big endian for our protocol for instance,
//Just check if you need to convert it or not:
if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
Array.Reverse(bytes); //reverse it so we get big endian.
You can find the full article here.
Hope this helps anyone coming here :)

Just reverse it, Note that this this code (like the other) works only on a little Endian machine. (edit - that was wrong, since this code returns LE by definition)
byte[] INT2LE(int data)
{
byte[] b = new byte[4];
b[0] = (byte)data;
b[1] = (byte)(((uint)data >> 8) & 0xFF);
b[2] = (byte)(((uint)data >> 16) & 0xFF);
b[3] = (byte)(((uint)data >> 24) & 0xFF);
return b;
}

Just do it in reverse:
result[3]= (data >> 24) & 0xff;
result[2]= (data >> 16) & 0xff;
result[1]= (data >> 8) & 0xff;
result[0]= data & 0xff;

Could you use the BitConverter class? It will only work on little-endian hardware I believe, but it should handle most of the heavy lifting for you.
The following is a contrived example that illustrates the use of the class:
if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
{
int someInteger = 100;
byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(someInteger);
int convertedFromBytes = BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, 0);
}

BitConverter.GetBytes(1000).Reverse<byte>().ToArray();

Depending on what you're actually doing, you could rely on letting the framework handle the details of endianness for you by using IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder and the corresponding reverse function. Then just use the BitConverter class to go to and from byte arrays.

Try using BinaryPrimitives in System.Buffers.Binary, it has helper methods for reading and writing all .net primitives in both little and big endian form.
byte[] IntToLittleEndian(int data)
{
var output = new byte[sizeof(int)];
BinaryPrimitives.WriteInt32LittleEndian(output, data);
return output;
}
int LittleEndianToInt(byte[] data)
{
return BinaryPrimitives.ReadInt32LittleEndian(data);
}

public static string decimalToHexLittleEndian(int _iValue, int _iBytes)
{
string sBigEndian = String.Format("{0:x" + (2 * _iBytes).ToString() + "}", _iValue);
string sLittleEndian = "";
for (int i = _iBytes - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
sLittleEndian += sBigEndian.Substring(i * 2, 2);
}
return sLittleEndian;
}

You can use this if you don't want to use new heap allocations:
public static void Int32ToFourBytes(Int32 number, out byte b0, out byte b1, out byte b2, out byte b3)
{
b3 = (byte)number;
b2 = (byte)(((uint)number >> 8) & 0xFF);
b1 = (byte)(((uint)number >> 16) & 0xFF);
b0 = (byte)(((uint)number >> 24) & 0xFF);
}