Binary value

[Shawn B.]

Greetings,

I've been up and down google on this one and clearly I don't know what
search terms to use because I can't locate how to do this for binary values
(or hex)...

in C#, we can specify a floating value by saying 0.0f and a hex number by
saying x = 0xFF10 but how do we specify a binary constant? I thought it
might be something like x = %1010101; but I honestly can't figure out what
it might be or how to locate it in the help file since can't even locate the
ones I do know about (float, decimal, hex, etc).

Anyone know?


Thanks,
Shawn

 

[Guest]

Hi Shawn,
you cannot specify a binary value in C#, however hexadecimal values are
easy to convert to/from binary values so you can use that instead.

The C# language specification is a good resource for looking at language
syntax specific items:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/aa336809.aspx

HTH
Mark

 

[Marc Gravell]

You can't do it as a *literal*, but it can be done indirectly...

Example:

static readonly int MY_CONST = Convert.ToInt32("10010101", 2);

When the class initialiser fires MY_CONST will evaluate the string as
an integer, but it will only ever run this once, so you get similar
performance to a literal [except that it won't be pre-combined with
other "constant" values at the compiler].

Marc

 

[Dave Sexton]

Hi Marc,

Interesting, but it should be noted that hex is a more standardized
approach - I don't see "binary" strings too often

 

[Marc Gravell]

Indeed, and I have *never* used this string approach myself... included in
the context that in some circumstance it *might* be useful to see the bits
directly. Actually I tend to just use integer literals myself. I'm so used
to the 2^n sequence that I can usually spot the bits, and if not "calc" is
just a keypress away (on an extended keyboard, at least ;-p)

Marc

 

[Dave Sexton]

Hi Marc,

Good point. In my experience, when I need to see the bits it's probably
because I'm using flags, so an Enum with FlagsAttribute could be useful (or
possibly BitArray or BitVector32 structures). I can't remember ever needing
to see the bits in a literal, however.

 

[Shawn B.]

Good point. In my experience, when I need to see the bits it's probably

because I'm using flags, so an Enum with FlagsAttribute could be useful
(or possibly BitArray or BitVector32 structures). I can't remember ever
needing to see the bits in a literal, however.

I'm using my values in an enumeration. I've decided to convert the binary
into hex and use hex literals. I wouldn't normally be attempting such a
thing, but I'm writing a CPU emulator at the opcode chart is listed binary
numbers instead of hex... simply becuase the instuction, bitflags,
conditinals, source and destination are all packed into a single 32-bit
value so they use binary in the opcode charts.

If anyone cares, its the 32-bit 8-Core CPU from parallax.

For now, I'm converted the binary into hex and is sufficient for my rather
simple needs.

Thanks,
Shawn