Bit fields in C#

I’d probably knock together something using attributes, then a conversion class to convert suitably attributed structures to the bitfield primitives. Something like…

using System;

namespace BitfieldTest
{
    [global::System.AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false)]
    sealed class BitfieldLengthAttribute : Attribute
    {
        uint length;

        public BitfieldLengthAttribute(uint length)
        {
            this.length = length;
        }

        public uint Length { get { return length; } }
    }

    static class PrimitiveConversion
    {
        public static long ToLong<T>(T t) where T : struct
        {
            long r = 0;
            int offset = 0;

            // For every field suitably attributed with a BitfieldLength
            foreach (System.Reflection.FieldInfo f in t.GetType().GetFields())
            {
                object[] attrs = f.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(BitfieldLengthAttribute), false);
                if (attrs.Length == 1)
                {
                    uint fieldLength  = ((BitfieldLengthAttribute)attrs[0]).Length;

                    // Calculate a bitmask of the desired length
                    long mask = 0;
                    for (int i = 0; i < fieldLength; i++)
                        mask |= 1 << i;

                    r |= ((UInt32)f.GetValue(t) & mask) << offset;

                    offset += (int)fieldLength;
                }
            }

            return r;
        }
    }

    struct PESHeader
    {
        [BitfieldLength(2)]
        public uint reserved;
        [BitfieldLength(2)]
        public uint scrambling_control;
        [BitfieldLength(1)]
        public uint priority;
        [BitfieldLength(1)]
        public uint data_alignment_indicator;
        [BitfieldLength(1)]
        public uint copyright;
        [BitfieldLength(1)]
        public uint original_or_copy;
    };

    public class MainClass
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            PESHeader p = new PESHeader();

            p.reserved = 3;
            p.scrambling_control = 2;
            p.data_alignment_indicator = 1;

            long l = PrimitiveConversion.ToLong(p);


            for (int i = 63; i >= 0; i--)
            {
                Console.Write( ((l & (1l << i)) > 0) ? "1" : "0");
            }

            Console.WriteLine();

            return;
        }
    }
}

Which produces the expected …000101011. Of course, it needs more error checking and a slightly saner typing, but the concept is (I think) sound, reusable, and lets you knock out easily maintained structures by the dozen.

adamw