Java BigInteger toByteArray() method example

public byte[] toByteArray()

The toByteArray() method returns a byte array containing the two’s-complement representation of this BigInteger.

Requires Java 1.1 and up

Below is a java code demonstrates the use of toByteArray() method of BigInteger class. The example presented might be simple however it shows the behavior of the toByteArray() method.

package com.javatutorialhq.java.examples;

import java.math.BigInteger;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Scanner;

/*
 * A java example source code to demonstrate
 * the use of toByteArray() method of BigInteger class
 */

public class BigIntegerToByteArrayExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {	
		
		// get user input
		System.out.print("Enter a value:");
		Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
		String input = s.nextLine();		
		s.close();

		// convert the first String Input to BigInteger
		BigInteger val1 = new BigInteger(input);
		
		/*
		 * get the the byte array equivalent of the user input
		 * 
		 */
		byte[] result = val1.toByteArray();
		System.out.println("result:"+Arrays.toString(result));
		
	}

}

This example is a lot simpler than it looks. Basically we ask for user input and converted this value into BigInteger. We then printed out the results of the toByteArray() operation using the Arrays.toString method.

Below is the sample output when you run the above example.

• Java BigInteger Class Tutorial
• Java Tutorial

• Oracle Java Documentation