question: private static int [ ] stripLeadingZeroBytes ( byte a [ ] ) { int byteLength = a . length ; int keep ; for ( keep = 0 ; keep < byteLength && a [ keep ] == 0 ; keep ++ ) ; int intLength = ( ( byteLength - keep ) + 3 ) > > > 2 ; int [ ] result = new int [ intLength ] ; int b = byteLength - 1 ; for ( int i = intLength - 1 ; i >= 0 ; i -- ) { result [ i ] = a [ b -- ] & 0xff ; int bytesRemaining = b - keep + 1 ; int bytesToTransfer = Math . min ( 3 , bytesRemaining ) ; for ( int j = 8 ; j <= ( bytesToTransfer << 3 ) ; j += 8 ) result [ i ] |= ( ( a [ b -- ] & 0xff ) << j ) ; } return result ; }
target:  Returns a copy of the input array stripped of any leading zero bytes.