[LANG-801] Util for conversion between primitive types

• Type: New Feature
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Component/s: lang.*
• Assignee: Joerg Schaible
• Reporter: Sebastien Riou
• Created: 03/May/12 13:37
• Updated: 15/Oct/13 02:33
• Resolved: 03/Oct/12 22:40

Description

A utility class to convert data from one primitive type to another, in the most commonly used fashions (big endian/little endian byte order, lsb first or msb first).
It also deals with arrays of primitive types and String containing hexadecimal numbers.

Such conversions are needed when dealing with embedded software or hardware modeling/design.
I attach a initial version which deals with the "default" encoding, the one which seems the most natural on the JVM: little endian byte ordering, and, within a byte, lsb first.
I plan to implement the other encoding I need:

• big endian, lsb first
• big endian, msb first

So far I implemented about half of the methods needed to cover the default encoding:

• methods to convert a large data type into an array of a smaller data type (longToBytes for example)
• methods to convert an array of a small data type into a larger data type (bytesToLong for example)

The remaining half consist of the methods to convert from an array of a data type into an array of another data type (bytesToLongs, LongsToBytes)
Once this is available for different encodings, the most useful part can be done: the "bridge" methods to convert from one encoding to another

Issue Links

• is depended upon by: LANG-778 Add methods uuidToByteArray and byteArrayToUuid