How can I store a signed short integer in buffer? C

Question

I need to send a signed short integer but the sendto function requires me to give a char buffer.

The buffer: char SendBuffer[1024];

I was thinking of making the integer into a string and storing it like that but I am wondering if there is a better way to do it.

Answer 1

As you did not provide any code you have two options.

I assume that function sendto was declared as:

int sendto(const void *buff, size_t len);

You have two options:

1. Do not copy or convert anything:

short x;

/* some code */

sendto(&x, sizeof(x));

You may copy the context of the x to char buffer by using memcpy

memcpy(SendBuff, &x sizeof(x));
sendto(SendBuff, sizeof(x));

Answer 2

Actually, this is the declaration of sendto():

ssize_t sendto(int sockfd, const void *buf, size_t len, int flags,
                  const struct sockaddr *dest_addr, socklen_t addrlen);

The buffer is of type void* so you can pass it a pointer to any type of variable.

In your case:

short your_variable;
short *buffer = &your_variable;

sendto(sockfd, buffer, sizeof(your_variable), flags, ...);