negative numbers and binary formats

[Paul]

Im trying to take a negative integer value, convert it to its binary
equivalent, and save its hex value

-7 -> 1111 1001 -> F9


I was hoping to use sprintf, but:

irb(main):017:0> b = sprintf("%4b" , a)
=> "..1001"
irb(main):018:0>

The .. that appear break any further processing. So my questions are:

Why the dots, and what are they?
How do I do what Im trying to do - given my -7 in the example may be a
1 byte, 2 byte or 4 byte value. ( Im sure its some magic with
pack....)

Thanks

Paul

 

[Florian Gross]

Paul wrote:

Moin!

Im trying to take a negative integer value, convert it to its binary
equivalent, and save its hex value

-7 -> 1111 1001 -> F9

Does this help?

irb(main):032:0> [-7].pack("c").unpack("H*").first
=> "f9"

Thanks
Paul

Regards,
Florian Gross

 

[Ara.T.Howard]

Im trying to take a negative integer value, convert it to its binary
equivalent, and save its hex value

-7 -> 1111 1001 -> F9


I was hoping to use sprintf, but:

irb(main):017:0> b = sprintf("%4b" , a)
=> "..1001"
irb(main):018:0>

The .. that appear break any further processing. So my questions are:

Why the dots, and what are they?
How do I do what Im trying to do - given my -7 in the example may be a
1 byte, 2 byte or 4 byte value. ( Im sure its some magic with
pack....)

Thanks

Paul

you have a couple of options:

the [] method of Fixnum returns the bit:

harp:~ > cat a.rb
class Fixnum
def to_bin
packed = [self].pack 'N'
n_bytes = packed.size
n_bits = n_bytes * 8
s = ''
n_bits.times{|bit| s << self[n_bits - bit].to_s}
s
end
end

p 42.to_bin
p -7.to_bin

harp:~ > ruby a.rb
"00000000000000000000000000010101"
"11111111111111111111111111111100"

but perhaps only printf will suffice?

irb(main):003:0> printf "%32.32b", -7
11111111111111111111111111111001=> nil

irb(main):009:0> printf "%4.4o", -7
7771=> nil

but i'm not exactly sure where you are headed with this.

the '...' above is just showing you the extension of the sign bit.

-a
--
===============================================================================
| EMAIL :: Ara [dot] T [dot] Howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
| PHONE :: 303.497.6469
| A flower falls, even though we love it;
| and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.
| --Dogen
===============================================================================

 

[Markus]

Im trying to take a negative integer value, convert it to its binary
equivalent, and save its hex value

So, are you wanting it in binary or in hex?

Assuming (from your context) that you're wanting it in hexadecimal
(base 16) instead of binary (base 2) you could write:

(a & 0xff).to_s(16)

for one byte values,

(a & 0xffff).to_s(16)

for two byte values, etc.

If you are wanting it in binary you would instead write:

(a & 0xff).to_s(2)

How do I do what Im trying to do - given my -7 in the example may be a
1 byte, 2 byte or 4 byte value.

If you don't know at code-time how large the value will be, but can
determine it at run-time, you could write:

(a & (((1 << (8*n)) - 1)).to_s(16)

where n is the number of bytes in a and the expression involving a makes
a mask if the proper size. Alternatively, you could mess with the
result instead, by writing:

("0"*8 + (a & 0xffffffff).to_s(16))[-n*2..-1]

which pads the result with zeros and then takes the least significant 2n
hexits (i.e, the bottom n bytes).

-- Markus

 

[Mark Hubbart]

Im trying to take a negative integer value, convert it to its binary
equivalent, and save its hex value

-7 -> 1111 1001 -> F9


I was hoping to use sprintf, but:

irb(main):017:0> b = sprintf("%4b" , a)
=> "..1001"
irb(main):018:0>

The .. that appear break any further processing. So my questions are:

Why the dots, and what are they?

How do I do what Im trying to do - given my -7 in the example may be a
1 byte, 2 byte or 4 byte value. ( Im sure its some magic with
pack....)

well, if all you need is the hex part, here you go:

class Integer
def internal_hex
# choose a packing strategy
case self
when (-128..127) # char
[self].pack('c').unpack('C').first.to_s 16
when (-32768..32767) # short
[self].pack('s').unpack('S').first.to_s 16
when (-2147483648..2147483647) # long
[self].pack('l').unpack('L').first.to_s 16
else
"too big!" #
end
end
end

-7.internal_hex #=>"f9"


the hex string will be in big-endian (network) byte-order; that's the
way to_s(16) does it.

cheers
Mark

 

[Robert Klemme]

but perhaps only printf will suffice?

irb(main):003:0> printf "%32.32b", -7
11111111111111111111111111111001=> nil

Hm...

10:25:20 [source]: irb
irb(main):001:0> printf "%32.32b", -7
00000000000000000000000000001001=> nil
irb(main):002:0> RUBY_VERSION
=> "1.8.1"

robert

 

[Robert Klemme]

Paul wrote:

Moin!

Im trying to take a negative integer value, convert it to its binary
equivalent, and save its hex value

-7 -> 1111 1001 -> F9

Does this help?

irb(main):032:0> [-7].pack("c").unpack("H*").first
=> "f9"

That's nice although it is somewhat limited regarding the size of values:

[-7000].pack("c").unpack("H*").first

=> "a8"

After a bit experimenting I came up with this:

[-7].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '') => "f9"
[-7000000].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '')

=> "f953040"

Florian, what do you think?

Kind regards

robert

 

[Florian Gross]

After a bit experimenting I came up with this:

[-7].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '')

=> "f9"

[-7000000].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '')

=> "f953040"

Florian, what do you think?

Very nice, thank you. I wasn't aware of the range limit at first. Only
thing I would change is using .first instead of .shift. (For clarity)

Kind regards
robert

More regards,
Florian Gross

 

[Robert Klemme]

After a bit experimenting I came up with this:

[-7].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '')

=> "f9"

[-7000000].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '')

=> "f953040"

Florian, what do you think?

Very nice, thank you. I wasn't aware of the range limit at first. Only
thing I would change is using .first instead of .shift. (For clarity)

) I deliberately choose #shift in order to make the array a bit
smaller and remove all unnecessary references to the string - kind of GC
paranoid.

Regards

robert

 

[Markus]

[-7000000].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/, '')

) I deliberately choose #shift in order to make the array a bit
smaller and remove all unnecessary references to the string - kind of GC
paranoid.

But:
1. the array can't be referenced after the first/shift returns
(since it was an anonymous link in a message chain), so the
whole array is subject to GC from that point
2. shift can be significantly slower than first
3. how do you know that shift isn't doing something like:

def Array.shift
result = @hypothetical_primitive_array[0]
@hypothetical_primitive_array = @hypothetical_primitive_array[1..-1]
result
end

...in which case you'd still have the (scavengable) copy around
just as if you'd done it yourself?

It only pays to be paranoid if you can trust yourself more than you can
trust "them".

-- Markus

 

[Robert Klemme]

[-7000000].pack("i").unpack("h*").shift.reverse.gsub(/^f+(?=f)/,

'')

clarity)

) I deliberately choose #shift in order to make the array a bit
smaller and remove all unnecessary references to the string - kind of GC
paranoid.

But:
1. the array can't be referenced after the first/shift returns
(since it was an anonymous link in a message chain), so the
whole array is subject to GC from that point
2. shift can be significantly slower than first
3. how do you know that shift isn't doing something like:

def Array.shift
result = @hypothetical_primitive_array[0]
@hypothetical_primitive_array = @hypothetical_primitive_array[1..-1]
result
end

...in which case you'd still have the (scavengable) copy around
just as if you'd done it yourself?

It only pays to be paranoid if you can trust yourself more than you can
trust "them".

LOL

Lession taken. Thanks! Of course you're right. Now I just need to find
out who is "me" and "them"...

robert