This class provides static methods that can be used to convert portions of a byte array to simple value types. It also contains the overloaded GetBytes( ) method, which converts simple data types to byte arrays. These functions can be useful for creating custom reader and writer classes. For example, a typical writer class might take specific data, convert it to a byte array, then pass the byte array to some type of stream object.

public sealed class BitConverter {
// Public Static Fields
   public static readonly bool IsLittleEndian;        
// =True
// Public Static Methods
   public static long DoubleToInt64Bits(double value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(bool value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(char value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(double value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(short value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(int value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(long value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(float value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(ushort value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(uint value);
   public static byte[ ] GetBytes(ulong value);
   public static double Int64BitsToDouble(long value);
   public static bool ToBoolean(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static char ToChar(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static double ToDouble(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static short ToInt16(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static int ToInt32(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static long ToInt64(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static float ToSingle(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static string ToString(byte[ ] value);
   public static string ToString(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static string ToString(byte[ ] value, int startIndex, int length);
   public static ushort ToUInt16(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static uint ToUInt32(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
   public static ulong ToUInt64(byte[ ] value, int startIndex);
}