Conversion Macros

Type Conversion

Many times GLib, GTK, and other libraries allow you to pass “user data” to a callback, in the form of a void pointer. From time to time you want to pass an integer instead of a pointer. You could allocate an integer, with something like:

int *ip = g_new (int, 1);
*ip = 42;

But this is inconvenient, and it’s annoying to have to free the memory at some later time.

Pointers are always at least 32 bits in size (on all platforms GLib intends to support). Thus you can store at least 32-bit integer values in a pointer value. Naively, you might try this, but it’s incorrect:

gpointer p;
int i;
p = (void*) 42;
i = (int) p;

Again, that example was not correct, don’t copy it.

The problem is that on some systems you need to do this:

gpointer p;
int i;
p = (void*) (long) 42;
i = (int) (long) p;

The GLib macros GPOINTER_TO_INT(), GINT_TO_POINTER(), etc. take care to do the right thing on every platform.

Warning: You may not store pointers in integers. This is not portable in any way, shape or form. These macros only allow storing integers in pointers, and only preserve 32 bits of the integer; values outside the range of a 32-bit integer will be mangled.

GINT_TO_POINTER(value), GPOINTER_TO_INT(value): Stuffs an integer into a pointer type, and vice versa. Remember, you may not store pointers in integers. This is not portable in any way, shape or form. These macros only allow storing integers in pointers, and only preserve 32 bits of the integer; values outside the range of a 32-bit integer will be mangled.
GUINT_TO_POINTER(value), GPOINTER_TO_UINT(value): Stuffs an unsigned integer into a pointer type, and vice versa.
GSIZE_TO_POINTER(value), GPOINTER_TO_SIZE(value): Stuffs a size_t into a pointer type, and vice versa.

Byte Order Conversion

These macros provide a portable way to determine the host byte order and to convert values between different byte orders.

The byte order is the order in which bytes are stored to create larger data types such as the #gint and #glong values. The host byte order is the byte order used on the current machine.

Some processors store the most significant bytes (i.e. the bytes that hold the largest part of the value) first. These are known as big-endian processors. Other processors (notably the x86 family) store the most significant byte last. These are known as little-endian processors.

Finally, to complicate matters, some other processors store the bytes in a rather curious order known as PDP-endian. For a 4-byte word, the 3rd most significant byte is stored first, then the 4th, then the 1st and finally the 2nd.

Obviously there is a problem when these different processors communicate with each other, for example over networks or by using binary file formats. This is where these macros come in. They are typically used to convert values into a byte order which has been agreed on for use when communicating between different processors. The Internet uses what is known as ‘network byte order’ as the standard byte order (which is in fact the big-endian byte order).

Note that the byte order conversion macros may evaluate their arguments multiple times, thus you should not use them with arguments which have side-effects.

G_BYTE_ORDER: The host byte order. This can be either G_LITTLE_ENDIAN or G_BIG_ENDIAN.
G_LITTLE_ENDIAN: Specifies the little endian byte order.
G_BIG_ENDIAN: Specifies the big endian byte order.
G_PDP_ENDIAN: Specifies the PDP endian byte order.

Signed

GINT_FROM_BE(value): Converts an int value from big-endian to host byte order.
GINT_FROM_LE(value): Converts an int value from little-endian to host byte order.
GINT_TO_BE(value): Converts an int value from host byte order to big-endian.
GINT_TO_LE(value): Converts an int value from host byte order to little-endian.
GLONG_FROM_BE(value): Converts a long value from big-endian to the host byte order.
GLONG_FROM_LE(value): Converts a long value from little-endian to host byte order.
GLONG_TO_BE(value): Converts a long value from host byte order to big-endian.
GLONG_TO_LE(value): Converts a long value from host byte order to little-endian.
GSSIZE_FROM_BE(value): Converts a ssize_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GSSIZE_FROM_LE(value): Converts a ssize_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GSSIZE_TO_BE(value): Converts a ssize_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GSSIZE_TO_LE(value): Converts a ssize_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GINT16_FROM_BE(value): Converts an int16_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GINT16_FROM_LE(value): Converts an int16_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GINT16_TO_BE(value): Converts an int16_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GINT16_TO_LE(value): Converts an int16_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GINT32_FROM_BE(value): Converts an int32_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GINT32_FROM_LE(value): Converts an int32_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GINT32_TO_BE(value): Converts an int32_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GINT32_TO_LE(value): Converts an int32_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GINT64_FROM_BE(value): Converts an int64_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GINT64_FROM_LE(value): Converts an int64_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GINT64_TO_BE(value): Converts an int64_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GINT64_TO_LE(value): Converts an int64_t value from host byte order to little-endian.

Unsigned

GUINT_FROM_BE(value): Converts an unsigned int value from big-endian to host byte order.
GUINT_FROM_LE(value): Converts an unsigned int value from little-endian to host byte order.
GUINT_TO_BE(value): Converts an unsigned int value from host byte order to big-endian.
GUINT_TO_LE(value): Converts an unsigned int value from host byte order to little-endian.
GULONG_FROM_BE(value): Converts an unsigned long value from big-endian to host byte order.
GULONG_FROM_LE(value): Converts an unsigned long value from little-endian to host byte order.
GULONG_TO_BE(value): Converts an unsigned long value from host byte order to big-endian.
GULONG_TO_LE(value): Converts an unsigned long value from host byte order to little-endian.
GSIZE_FROM_BE(value): Converts a size_t value from big-endian to the host byte order.
GSIZE_FROM_LE(value): Converts a size_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GSIZE_TO_BE(value): Converts a size_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GSIZE_TO_LE(value): Converts a size_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GUINT16_FROM_BE(value): Converts a uint16_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GUINT16_FROM_LE(value): Converts a uint16_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GUINT16_TO_BE(value): Converts a uint16_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GUINT16_TO_LE(value): Converts a uint16_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GUINT32_FROM_BE(value): Converts a uint32_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GUINT32_FROM_LE(value): Converts a uint32_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GUINT32_TO_BE(value): Converts a uint32_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GUINT32_TO_LE(value): Converts a uint32_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GUINT64_FROM_BE(value): Converts a uint64_t value from big-endian to host byte order.
GUINT64_FROM_LE(value): Converts a uint64_t value from little-endian to host byte order.
GUINT64_TO_BE(value): Converts a uint64_t value from host byte order to big-endian.
GUINT64_TO_LE(value): Converts a uint64_t value from host byte order to little-endian.
GUINT16_SWAP_BE_PDP(value): Converts a uint16_t value between big-endian and pdp-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.
GUINT16_SWAP_LE_BE(value): Converts a uint16_t value between little-endian and big-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.
GUINT16_SWAP_LE_PDP(value): Converts a uint16_t value between little-endian and pdp-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.
GUINT32_SWAP_BE_PDP(value): Converts a uint32_t value between big-endian and pdp-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.
GUINT32_SWAP_LE_BE(value): Converts a uint32_t value between little-endian and big-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.
GUINT32_SWAP_LE_PDP(value): Converts a uint32_t value between little-endian and pdp-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.
GUINT64_SWAP_LE_BE(value): Converts a uint64_t value between little-endian and big-endian byte order. The conversion is symmetric so it can be used both ways.