There is an alternative, that may be interesting when many variables need to available in both packed and unpacked form. Using structs you can obtain a "union" effect in C# in the following way:
using System.Runtime.InteropServices; // StructLayout
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)]
public struct Overlay {
[FieldOffset(0)]public uint u32;
[FieldOffset(0)]public byte u8_0;
[FieldOffset(1)]public byte u8_1;
[FieldOffset(2)]public byte u8_2;
[FieldOffset(3)]public byte u8_3;
}
public override void Run() {
Overlay overlay=new Overlay();
overlay.u32=0x12345678;
log("lo to hi: "+overlay.u8_0.ToString("X2")+" "+overlay.u8_1.ToString("X2")+
" "+overlay.u8_2.ToString("X2")+" "+overlay.u8_3.ToString("X2"));
}
On a little-endian machine (such as Intel x86) the Run method will log "lo to hi: 78 56 34 12" Be careful though, you are responsible for the offset values ! :) -- modified at 11:54 Sunday 4th February, 2007
Luc Pattyn
