Byte to short conversion

From WikiJava

Sometimes it's necessary to convert from bytes to shorts. Have you ever tried to store a video coordinate? The shorts are the solutions.

the code

/**
 * @param left
 *            The most valued byte.
 * @param right
 *            The less valued byte.
 * @return A short mixing the two parts.
 */
private static short byte2short(final byte left, final byte right) {
	return (short) ((left & 0xff) << 8 | right & 0xff);
}

As you can see we move the left one to the left, and "add" using the OR (|) operator with the right one. The bitmask 0xff is necessary to "hide" the other part of the number.

Any comment is appreciated.

Comments from the users

To be notified via mail on the updates of this discussion you can login and click on watch at the top of the page