C# generics: cast generic type to value type

Question

I have a generic class which saves value for the specified type T. The value can be an int, uint, double or float. Now I want to get the bytes of the value to encode it into an

Answer 1

I am on the side that this is an interesting real life problem that has nothing to do with "bad" design but rather standard C# limitations. Casting through object

return BitConverter.GetBytes((int)(object)this._value);

or, in the current language as

if (this._value is int intValue)
{
    return BitConverter.GetBytes(intValue);
} 

works but causes a performance hit due to ValueType boxing.

The solution to this problem is Unsafe.As() from System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Unsafe NuGet package:

if(typeof(T) == typeof(int))
{
     return BitConverter.GetBytes(Unsafe.As(ref this._value));
}

Results in no explicit or implicit cast to object.