convert float to short with minimal loss of precision

Question

I have this sine wave which generates floating point values (e.g. 0.37885) but I want them as shorts. Direct casting with short gives me a value of 0. so what is the solution?

Can anyone tell me how to do it - ideally without loss of precision - or minimal loss of precision if this is all that is possible?

Answer 1

public static short floatToShort(float x) {
    if (x < Short.MIN_VALUE) {
        return Short.MIN_VALUE;
    }
    if (x > Short.MAX_VALUE) {
        return Short.MAX_VALUE;
    }
    return (short) Math.round(x);
}

You'll loose the fractional part:

float    4 byte floating-point
double   8 byte floating-point (normal)
short    2 byte integer
int      4 byte integer (normal)
long     8 byte integer

Edit:

Maybe you wanted to know how to save the bits of a float (4 bytes) into an int (4 bytes): (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Float.html#floatToRawIntBits(float))

float x = 0.1f;
int n = Float.floatToRawIntBits(x);
float y = Float.intBitsToFloat(n);