Converting byte-stream into numeric data-type

Question

Let\'s say I have a byte-stream in which I know the location of a 64-bit value (a 64-bit nonce). The byte-order is Little-Endian. As PHP\'s integer data-type is limited to 3

Answer 1

Just looked up the code for Zend_Crypt_Math_BigInteger_Bcmath and Zend_Crypt_Math_BigInteger_Gmp which deals with this problem:

Using BCmath (Big-Endian)

This is essentially the solution posted by Chad Birch.

public static function bc_binaryToInteger($operand)
{
    $result = '0';
    while (strlen($operand)) {
        $ord = ord(substr($operand, 0, 1));
        $result = bcadd(bcmul($result, 256), $ord);
        $operand = substr($operand, 1);
    }
    return $result;
}

Using GMP (Big-Endian)

Same algorithem - just different function names.

public static function gmp_binaryToInteger($operand)
{
    $result = '0';
    while (strlen($operand)) {
        $ord = ord(substr($operand, 0, 1));
        $result = gmp_add(gmp_mul($result, 256), $ord);
        $operand = substr($operand, 1);
    }
    return gmp_strval($result);
}

Changing the algorithem to use Litte-Endian byte-order is quite simple: just read the binary data from end to start:

Using BCmath (Litte-Endian)

public static function bc_binaryToInteger($operand)
{
    // Just reverse the binray data
    $operand = strrev($operand);
    $result = '0';
    while (strlen($operand)) {
        $ord = ord(substr($operand, 0, 1));
        $result = bcadd(bcmul($result, 256), $ord);
        $operand = substr($operand, 1);
    }
    return $result;
}

Using GMP (Litte-Endian)

public static function gmp_binaryToInteger($operand)
{
    // Just reverse the binray data
    $operand = strrev($operand);
    $result = '0';
    while (strlen($operand)) {
        $ord = ord(substr($operand, 0, 1));
        $result = gmp_add(gmp_mul($result, 256), $ord);
        $operand = substr($operand, 1);
    }
    return gmp_strval($result);
}