How to convert a byte array to its numeric value (Java)?

pirate picture pirate · Jun 22, 2009 · Viewed 143.1k times · Source

I have an 8 byte array and I want to convert it to its corresponding numeric value.

e.g.

byte[] by = new byte[8];  // the byte array is stored in 'by'

// CONVERSION OPERATION
// return the numeric value

I want a method that will perform the above conversion operation.

Answer

coobird picture coobird · Jun 22, 2009

One could use the Buffers that are provided as part of the java.nio package to perform the conversion.

Here, the source byte[] array has a of length 8, which is the size that corresponds with a long value.

First, the byte[] array is wrapped in a ByteBuffer, and then the ByteBuffer.getLong method is called to obtain the long value:

ByteBuffer bb = ByteBuffer.wrap(new byte[] {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4});
long l = bb.getLong();

System.out.println(l);

Result

4

I'd like to thank dfa for pointing out the ByteBuffer.getLong method in the comments.


Although it may not be applicable in this situation, the beauty of the Buffers come with looking at an array with multiple values.

For example, if we had a 8 byte array, and we wanted to view it as two int values, we could wrap the byte[] array in an ByteBuffer, which is viewed as a IntBuffer and obtain the values by IntBuffer.get:

ByteBuffer bb = ByteBuffer.wrap(new byte[] {0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 4});
IntBuffer ib = bb.asIntBuffer();
int i0 = ib.get(0);
int i1 = ib.get(1);

System.out.println(i0);
System.out.println(i1);

Result:

1
4