platform independent serialization of a long

[RA Scheltema]

hi all,
A small question about serializing and deserializing a long in a platform
independent manner. Can this be done with the following code ?:
char buf[4];
long val = 35456;

/* serialize ... on for example intel */
buf[0] = (unsigned char) ((val & 0xff000000) >> 24);
buf[1] = (unsigned char) ((val & 0x00ff0000) >> 16);
buf[2] = (unsigned char) ((val & 0x0000ff00) >> 8);
buf[3] = (unsigned char) ((val & 0x000000ff) >> 0);

/* deserialize ... on for example mac */
val = 0;
val = val | ((unsigned long) buf[0]) << 24;
val = val | ((unsigned long) buf[1]) << 16;
val = val | ((unsigned long) buf[2]) << 8;
val = val | ((unsigned long) buf[3]) << 0;
According to a collegue of mine, the & (in the first part of the code)
ensures that the least significant and most significant byte is always
intact on whatever platform the buffer is deserialized. I don't agree, any
suggestions ?
kind regards,
richard

[Joona I Palaste]

Sean Kelly <se**@ffwd.cx > scribbled the following
on comp.lang.c:

You might also want to look at the socket calls htonl() and ntohl().

Which aren't part of either C or C++, but rather an implementation-
specific extension.

--
/-- Joona Palaste (pa*****@cc.hel sinki.fi) ------------- Finland --------\
\-- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/
"'So called' means: 'There is a long explanation for this, but I have no
time to explain it here.'"
- JIPsoft