working with binary numbers with bitwise operators

Dar Scott dsc at swcp.com
Mon May 31 12:34:03 EDT 2004


On Monday, May 31, 2004, at 08:06 AM, MisterX wrote:

> I dont know if the value of the appended number
> is important but appending of numbers requires a
> base to base modulation

That might be convenient if eye-friendly intermediate values are 
needed, that is, if intermediate values must look like long binary 
numbers.

However, if numbers are kept in 24-bit chunks and two are used to 
represent a 48-bit value, then the use of base conversion is not 
needed.  The results of bit-logical operators are numbers.  They can be 
paired with ",".  (Numberformat is applied in that case.)  They can 
also be paired with binaryEncode and "&", but this can't reliably be 
put into a field in debugging.

The bitwise logical operators are then applied to both halves to get a 
logical result.

My understanding is that Alejandro is using binary numeral strings, eg 
"011001110001010110", to accommodate shifting, so this does not apply.  
(As I mentioned earlier, I think shifting as number is not so bad and 
can be built up to apply to aggregates.)

I would use base conversion only for display.

Dar Scott



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