Objective-C - NSData to integer does not work - objective-c

I'm trying to convert 2 bytes in a NSData to an int.
Using the code
int value = *(int*)[d1 bytes];
NSLog(#"NSData: %# -> int: %d",d1, value);
i'll get
NSData: <01ac> -> int: 44033
which is int for ac01 not 01ac.
What would be the way to convert it in the correct way?

I believe that the byte order is switched (i.e. big endian vs. little endian).
To fix this, try:
int value = CFSwapInt32BigToHost(*(int*)[d1 bytes]);

Related

Convert Hex string to IEEE 754 float

I am trying to convert a nsstring with hex values into a float value.
NSString *hexString = #"3f9d70a4";
The float value should be = 1.230.
Some ways I have tried to solve this are:
1.NSScanner
-(unsigned int)strfloatvalue:(NSString *)str
{
float outVal;
NSString *newStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"0x%#",str];
NSScanner* scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:newStr];
NSLog(#"string %#",newStr);
bool test = [scanner scanHexFloat:&outVal];
NSLog(#"scanner result %d = %a (or %f)",test,outVal,outVal);
return outVal;
}
results:
string 0x3f9d70a4
scanner result 1 = 0x1.fceb86p+29 (or 1067282624.000000)
2.casting pointers
NSNumber * xPtr = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:[(NSNumber *)#"3f9d70a4" floatValue]];
result:3.000000
What you have is not a "hexadecimal float", as is produced by the %a string format and scanned by scanHexFloat: but the hexadecimal representation of a 32-bit floating-point value - i.e. the actual bits.
To convert this back to a float in C requires messing with the type system - to give you access to the bytes that make up a floating-point value. You can do this with a union:
typedef union { float f; uint32_t i; } FloatInt;
This type is similar to a struct but the fields are overlaid on top of each other. You should understand that doing this kind of manipulation requires you understand the storage formats, are aware of endian order, etc. Do not do this lightly.
Now you have the above type you can scan a hexadecimal integer and interpret the resultant bytes as a floating-point number:
FloatInt fl;
NSScanner *scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:#"3f9d70a4"];
if([scanner scanHexInt:&fl.i]) // scan into the i field
{
NSLog(#"%x -> %f", fl.i, fl.f); // display the f field, interpreting the bytes of i as a float
}
else
{
// parse error
}
This works, but again consider carefully what you are doing.
HTH
I think a better solutions is a workaround like this :
-(float) getFloat:(NSInteger*)pIndex
{
NSInteger index = *pIndex;
NSData* data = [self subDataFromIndex:&index withLength:4];
*pIndex = index;
uint32_t hostData = CFSwapInt32BigToHost(*(const uint32_t *)[data bytes]);
return *(float *)(&hostData);;
}
Where your parameter is an NSData which rapresents the number in HEX format, and the input parameter is a pointer to the element of NSData.
So basically you are trying to make an NSString to C's float, there's an old fashion way to do that!
NSString* hexString = #"3f9d70a4";
const char* cHexString = [hexString UTF8String];
long l = strtol(cHexString, NULL, 16);
float f = *((float *) &l);
// f = 1.23
for more detail please see this answer

How can I turn NSData's hex string into a normal hex string?

So, take an unsigned int, say 4286578687.
From this site: http://www.mathsisfun.com/binary-decimal-hexadecimal-converter.html
I get the hex value to be: FF7FFFFF
However, if I put that int into NSData like so:
//The unsigned int is unsignedInt and its length is unsignedLength
NSData *thisData = [NSData dataWithBytes:&unsignedInt length:unsignedLength];
And then use the description method, which supposedly returns the data's hex value as a string:
NSLog(#"data as hex: %#", [thisData description]);
The output is:
data as hex: <ffff7fff>
Which on the same website evaluates to 4294934527.
So it seems like NSData is using some non-standard hex format. Can anyone tell me how to get back to the real hex format?
You are seeing a difference between storing the bytes of the unsigned int in big-endian versus little-endian.
If you want to guarantee that the output of the NSData is in big-endian format then you should do the following:
unsigned int x = 4286578687;
unsigned int big = NSSwapHostIntToBig(x);
NSData *thisData = [NSData dataWithBytes:&big length:sizeof(big)];
NSLog(#"data as hex: %#", thisData);
This logs the expected result of data as hex: <ff7fffff>.
This code will work on any processor type and always give you the result in big-endian format.
When going back the other way you would need to use the NSSwapBigIntToHost function to ensure the big-endian data is properly converted to the local format.
You can try something like this :
NSInteger i = 4286578687;
NSLog(#"hex : %#", [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%X", i]);
// Result
>>> hex : FF7FFFFF

Convert 1 byte to int Objective-C

I have an NSData packet with data in it. I need to convert the byte at range 8, 1 to an int. To get the data at that location I do the following.
NSData *byte = [packet subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(8, 1)];
If I NSLog byte
<01>
How do I think convert this to an int? This is probably the most basic of questions but I am just not getting it right.
Any help would be appreciated.
Update
With that data the int should be equal to 1. I am not sure if this has anything todo with Endian.
use -[NSData bytes] to get raw buffer and read from it
int i = *((char *)[byte bytes])
or use -[NSData getBytes:length:]
char buff;
[bytes getBytes:&buff length:1];
int i = buff;
make sure you are reading from char * not int *, otherwise you are accessing invalid memory location, which may or may not crash or provide correct result.

get float value from nsdata objective-c iOS

I am trying to get a float value from a NSData object which contains several hex values. e.g. EC 51 38 41
From this 4 Byte values i want to get the float value 11.52. How do i have to do this in xcode?
I have tried it with NSScanner (scanFloat, scanHexFloat), NSNumberformatter and NSNumber, i created an Byte Array and tried float myFloat = *(float*)&myByteArray. All these Options i found here at stackoverflow.
I tested it in Windows with C# and there it was no problem:
byte[] bytes = new byte[4] { 0xEC, 0x51, 0x38, 0x41 };
float myFloat = System.BitConverter.ToSingle(bytes, 0);
Does anybody know how i have to do this in xcode???
Thanks, Benjamin
When converting binary data from a foreign protocol always make sure to include proper swapping for endianness:
uint32_t hostData = CFSwapInt32BigToHost(*(const uint32_t *)[data bytes]);
float value = *(float *)(&hostData);
You have to know the endianness of the encoded data. You might need to use CFSwapInt32LittleToHost instead.
NSData * data = ...; // loaded from bluetooth
float z;
[data getBytes:&z length:sizeof(float)];
Try this.
I have tries it with NSScanner (scanFloat, scanHexFloat), NSNumberformatter and NSNumber
You're barking up the wrong tree here. NSScanner is for scanning strings. NSNumber is not the same as NSData, and NSNumberFormatter won't work with NSData either.
NSData is a container for plain old binary data. You've apparently got a float stored in an NSData instance; if you want to access it, you'll need to get the data's bytes and then interpret those bytes however you like, e.g. by casting to float:
float *p = (float*)[myData bytes]; // -bytes returns a void* that points to the data
float f = *p;

Problem while converting NSData to int

Using foundation and cocoa frameworks on Mac, I am trying to convert an NSData object in humanly understandable number.
Let say the NSData object is an image of NPIXEL. I know the binary data are coded in big endian and represent 32 bit integer (to be more precise 32 bit two complements integer). I write the piece of code bellow to convert the NSData into an int array. But the value I got are completely wrong (this does not means the measurement are bad, I used a special software to read the data and the value given by the software are different from the one I got with my code).
-(int *) GetArrayOfLongInt
{
//Get the total number of element into the Array
int Nelements=[self NPIXEL];
//CREATE THE ARRAY
int array[Nelements];
//FILL THE ARRAY
int32_t intValue;
int32_t swappedValue;
double Value;
int Nbit = abs(BITPIX)*GCOUNT*(PCOUNT + Nelements); Nbit/=sizeof(int32_t);
int i=0;
int step=sizeof(int32_t);
for(int bit=0; bit < Nbit; bit+=step)
{
[Img getBytes:&swappedValue range:NSMakeRange(bit,step)];
intValue= NSSwapBigIntToHost(swappedValue);
array[i]=intValue;
i++;
}
return array;
}
This piece of code (with minor change) work perfectly when the binary data represent float or double, but I dont when it is 16,32 or 64 bit integer. I also tried changingNSSapBigIntToHostintoNSSwapLittleInttoHost`. I even tried with long, but the results is still the same, I got bad values. What wrong I am doing ?
PS: Some of the variable in my code are already set elsewhere in my program. BITPIX is the bit size of each pixel. In this case 32. GCOUNT is equal to 1, PCOUNT 0 and Nelements is the total number of pixel I should have in my image.
Returning a pointer to a local variable is a very bad idea. array could get overwritten at any time (or if you were to write through the pointer, you could corrupt the stack). You probably want something like:
// CREATE THE ARRAY
int *array = malloc(Nelements * sizeof(int));
Your algorithm seems a bit overkill, too. Why not just copy out the whole array from the NSData object, and then byteswap the entries in place? Something like:
int32_t length = [Img length];
int32_t *array = malloc(length);
[Img getBytes:array length:length];
for (i = 0; i < length/sizeof(int32_t); i++)
{
array[i] = NSSwapBigIntToHost(array[i]);
}