Conversion from hex to IEEE-754 float

I want to convert hexidecimal bytes from a serial device protocol to floating point

for example: 0x40 0xb0 0x00 0x00 represents 5.5

char msg[4];
float *f;

msg[0]=0x40;
msg[1]=0xB0;
msg[2]=0x00;
msg[3]=0x00;

f=(float*)msg doesn't seem to work

does anyone know how to do this?

The reason it doesn't simply work good that way, is because floats are not stored in memory the same way that regular variables are. They have a skewed storage method. If they didn't, you could simply do:

Code:

---

union u {
    unsigned char c[4];
    float f;
};

---

You can try it, but I doubt you'll get the results you want.

Quzah.

>msg[0]=0x40;
>msg[1]=0xB0;
>msg[2]=0x00;
>msg[3]=0x00;

For a windows machine, should be:
msg[3]=0x40;
msg[2]=0xB0;
msg[1]=0x00;
msg[0]=0x00;

Quote:

---

Originally posted by quzah
The reason it doesn't simply work good that way, is because floats are not stored in memory the same way that regular variables are. They have a skewed storage method. If they didn't, you could simply do:

Code:

---

union u {
    unsigned char c[4];
    float f;
};

---

You can try it, but I doubt you'll get the results you want.

Quzah.

---

****
Quzah, with the bytes in reverse order your solution works!!
Thank you!.