type conversion - How do I convert Long to byte[] and back in java

Question

How do I convert a long to a byte[] and back in Java?

I'm trying convert a long to a byte[] so that I will be able to send the byte[] over a TCP connection. On the other side I want to take that byte[] and convert it back into a double.

Answer 1

public byte[] longToBytes(long x) {
    ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(Long.BYTES);
    buffer.putLong(x);
    return buffer.array();
}

public long bytesToLong(byte[] bytes) {
    ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(Long.BYTES);
    buffer.put(bytes);
    buffer.flip();//need flip 
    return buffer.getLong();
}

Or wrapped in a class to avoid repeatedly creating ByteBuffers:

public class ByteUtils {
    private static ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(Long.BYTES);    

    public static byte[] longToBytes(long x) {
        buffer.putLong(0, x);
        return buffer.array();
    }

    public static long bytesToLong(byte[] bytes) {
        buffer.put(bytes, 0, bytes.length);
        buffer.flip();//need flip 
        return buffer.getLong();
    }
}

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Since this is getting so popular, I just want to mention that I think you're better off using a library like Guava in the vast majority of cases. And if you have some strange opposition to libraries, you should probably consider this answer first for native java solutions. I think the main thing my answer really has going for it is that you don't have to worry about the endian-ness of the system yourself.