UnsafeMutablePointer<UInt8> to [UInt8] without memory copy
As already mentioned in the comments, you can create an
UnsafeMutableBufferPointer
from the pointer:
let a = UnsafeMutableBufferPointer(start: p, count: n)
This does not copy the data, which means that you have to ensure that
the pointed-to data is valid as long as a
is used.
Unsafe (mutable) buffer pointers have similar access methods like arrays,
such as subscripting:
for i in 0 ..< a.count {
print(a[i])
}
or enumeration:
for elem in a {
print(elem)
}
You can create a "real" array from the buffer pointer with
let b = Array(a)
but this will copy the data.
Here is a complete example demonstrating the above statements:
func test(_ p : UnsafeMutablePointer<UInt8>, _ n : Int) {
// Mutable buffer pointer from data:
let a = UnsafeMutableBufferPointer(start: p, count: n)
// Array from mutable buffer pointer
let b = Array(a)
// Modify the given data:
p[2] = 17
// Printing elements of a shows the modified data: 1, 2, 17, 4
for elem in a {
print(elem)
}
// Printing b shows the orignal (copied) data: 1, 2, 3, 4
print(b)
}
var bytes : [UInt8] = [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]
test(&bytes, bytes.count)