How to: Convert a byte Array to an int (C# Programming Guide)

This example shows you how to use the BitConverter class to convert an array of bytes to an int and back to an array of bytes. You may have to convert from bytes to a built-in data type after you read bytes off the network, for example. In addition to the ToInt32(array<Byte[], Int32) method in the example, the following table lists methods in the BitConverter class that convert bytes (from an array of bytes) to other built-in types.

Example

This example initializes an array of bytes, reverses the array if the computer architecture is little-endian (that is, the least significant byte is stored first), and then calls the ToInt32(array<Byte[], Int32) method to convert four bytes in the array to an int. The second argument to ToInt32(array<Byte[], Int32) specifies the start index of the array of bytes.

byte[] bytes = { 0, 0, 0, 25 };

// If the system architecture is little-endian (that is, little end first), 
// reverse the byte array. 
if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
    Array.Reverse(bytes);

int i = BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, 0);
Console.WriteLine("int: {0}", i);
// Output: int: 25

In this example, the GetBytes(Int32) method of the BitConverter class is called to convert an int to an array of bytes.

byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(201805978);
Console.WriteLine("byte array: " + BitConverter.ToString(bytes));
// Output: byte array: 9A-50-07-0C

See Also

Reference

BitConverter

IsLittleEndian

Types (C# Programming Guide)