Question

I’m writing a short to a file, using the following code in Java:

RandomAccessFile file = new RandomAccessFile("C:\\Users\\PC\\Desktop\\myFile.bin", "rw");
file.writeShort(11734);
file.close();

When I read it back in Java, I get the same (11734) number back. However, when I read the number in C# using the following code:

string p = "C:\\Users\\PC\\Desktop\\myFile.bin";
short s = new BinaryReader(File.OpenRead(p)).ReadInt16();

The variable s contains -10707.

How can this happen, and is there a way to retrieve the number I wrote to a file in Java, in C#?

Answer 1

BigEndian/LittleEndian problem. see below

byte[] b = BitConverter.GetBytes((short)11734);
var s = BitConverter.ToInt16(new byte[] {b[1],b[0] }, 0);

s will be -10707

You can use IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder to convert from one form to another.

var sh1 = IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder((short)11734); //-10707
var sh2 = IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder((short)-10707); //11734

You can also crete your own BinaryReader

public class MyBinaryReader : BinaryReader
{
    public MyBinaryReader(Stream s)  : base(s)
    {
    }

    public override short ReadInt16()
    {
        return IPAddress.HostToNetworkOrder(base.ReadInt16());
    }
}