You could subtract 128 from the value:
byte x = (byte) (value - 128);
That would be order-preserving, and reversible later by simply adding 128 again. Be careful to make sure you do add 128 later on though... It's as simple as:
int value = x + 128;
So for example, if you wanted to convert between an int[]
and byte[]
in a reversible way:
public byte[] toByteArray(int[] values) {
byte[] ret = new byte[values.length];
for (int i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
ret[i] = (byte) (values[i] - 128);
}
return ret;
}
public int[] toIntArray(int[] values) {
int[] ret = new byte[values.length];
for (int i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
ret[i] = values[i] + 128;
}
return ret;
}
If you wanted to keep the original values though, the byte comparison wouldn't need to be particularly complex:
int unsigned1 = byte1 & 0xff;
int unsigned2 = byte2 & 0xff;
// Now just compare unsigned1 and unsigned2...