Comment by premchai21

I actually use macros along the lines of:

  #define LOAD(TYP, ptr) (*((TYP *)memcpy((TYP[1]){ }, ptr, sizeof(TYP))))
  #define REINTERPRET(AS_TYP, FROM_TYP, val) LOAD(AS_TYP, (FROM_TYP[1]){ val })

In practice (that I've found, with GCC), the memcpy and single-use temporaries get optimized away entirely. In strict C99, writing one member of a union and then reading a different member of the same union is undefined in the general case, last I checked. http://cellperformance.beyond3d.com/articles/2006/06/underst... seems to agree, but suggests that every major compiler recognizes it as a de facto idiom and supports it anyway.