How Can I Efficiently Encode a Byte Slice as an Int64 in Go?

Efficient Int64 Encoding of Byte Slices in Go

Consider the following scenario: you have an array of bytes and need to encode it as an int64 for further processing or storage. While there are various approaches to accomplish this in Go, is there a more idiomatic or efficient way to perform this encoding?

One common approach is to loop through the bytes and manually shift and merge them into the int64 variable. While this method works, it can be tedious and error-prone.

An alternative approach that is both idiomatic and efficient involves using the bitwise operators provided by Go. The following code snippet demonstrates this approach:

func main() {
    var mySlice = []byte{244, 244, 244, 244, 244, 244, 244, 244}
    data := int64(0)

    for _, b := range mySlice {
        data = (data << 8) | int64(b)
    }
    fmt.Printf("%d\n", data)
}

In this example, the bitwise left shift operator (<<) is used to shift the data variable left by 8 bits in each iteration. The current byte value is then converted to an int64 and bitwise OR'd (|) with data. This process effectively appends the byte value to the left end of the data variable, creating the desired int64 representation of the byte slice.

This approach is concise, efficient, and aligns with the idiomatic style of Go. By leveraging the bitwise operators, it reduces the need for explicit loops and manual bit manipulation, making the code more readable and maintainable.

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