CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++serializationcastingreinterpret-cast
user1177344
user1177344

Reputation: 11

reinterpret_cast for 'serializing' data, byte order and alignment on receiving end

If we have a POD struct say A, and I do this:

char* ptr = reinterpret_cast<char*>(A);
char buf[20];
for (int i =0;i<20; ++i)
   buf[i] = ptr[i];
network_send(buf,..);

If the recieving end remote box, is not necessarily same hardware or OS, can I safely do this to 'unserialize':

void onRecieve(..char* buf,..) {
  A* result = reinterpret_cast<A*>(buf); // given same bytes in same order from the sending end

Will the 'result' always be valid? The C++ standard states with POD structures, the result of reinterpret_cast should point to the first member, but does it mean the actual byte order will be correct also, even if the recieving end is a different platform?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2322

Answers (2)

Aaditya Kalsi
Aaditya Kalsi

Reputation: 1049

You may consider using a templatefor this and letting the compiler handle it for you

template<typename T>
struct base_type {
    union {
        T    scalar;
        char bytes[sizeof(T)];
    };
    void serialize(T val, byte* dest) {
        scalar = val;
        if is_big_endian { /* swap bytes and write */ }
        else { /* just write */ }
    }
};

Upvotes: 0

Kerrek SB
Kerrek SB

Reputation: 477444

No, you cannot. You can only ever cast "down" to char*, never back to an object pointer:

  Source                  Destination
     \                         /
      \                       /
       V                     V
 read as char* ---> write as if to char*

In code:

Foo Source;
Foo Destination;

char buf[sizeof(Foo)];

// Serialize:
char const * ps = reinterpret_cast<char const *>(&Source);
std::copy(ps, ps + sizeof(Foo), buf);

// Deserialize:
char * pd = reinterpret_cast<char *>(&Destination);
std::copy(buf, buf + sizeof(Foo), pd);

In a nutshell: If you want an object, you have to have an object. You cannot just pretend a random memory location is an object if it really isn't (i.e. if it isn't the address of an actual object of the desired type).

Upvotes: 3

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