How to convert a float to a 4 byte char in C?

Question

I want to convert a float number for example 2.45 to the 4 byte char array. so the 2.45 should look like this `'@' 'FS' 'Ì' 'Í'` which is binary the ieee representation of `2.45 = 01000000 00011100 11001100 11001101`? I've solved the problem but it has a bad complexity. do you have any good ideas? Thanks for the good answers. can you please tell me the way back from the char array to the float number ?

Accepted Answer

You have a few ways of doing this, including these two:

Use typecasting and pointers:

```
float f = 2.45;
char *s = (char *) &f;
```

Note that this isn't safe in any way and that there is no string terminator after the "string".

Use a `union`:

```
union u
{
    float f;
    char s[sizeof float];
};

union u foo;
foo.f = 2.45;
```

The char array can now be accessed to get the byte values. Also note like the first alternative there is no string terminator.

How to convert a float to a 4 byte char in C?

Solution

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