Question

To explain: I have array of ints as input. I need to convert it to array of bytes, where 1 int = 4 bytes (big endian). In C++, I can easily just cast it and then access to the field as if it was byte array, without copying or counting the data – just direct access. Is this possible in C#? And in C# 2.0?

Answer 1

Yes, using unsafe code:

int[] arr =...
fixed(int* ptr = arr) {
    byte* ptr2 = (byte*)ptr;
    // now access ptr2[n]
}

If the compiler complains, add a (void*):

    byte* ptr2 = (byte*)(void*)ptr;