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Binary literals in C
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(thing) by call (11.6 hr) (print) ? 1 C! Fri Aug 30 2002 at 12:59:42
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The C programming language is an excellent one for all us bit twiddlers, blessed as it is with the full remember me Login
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complement of bitwise operations, and no performance overheads that aren't visible in the language (in
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other words, integral variables are usually in registers). Random Node
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Also of benefit to us, it has a variety of number bases in which we can write literal values: decimal (by just [ * ] Read 'Em or Weep
writing, eg. 9999), hexadecimal (by prefixing with '0x', eg 0xffff), and even octal (by prefixing with '0', eg. Getting Started
07777). Quick Start
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Notable by its omission, however, and quite frustrating to us low-level types, is the presence of any way of Voting/Experience System
representing binary literal values. This perplexed and annoyed me for many a year, until recently when I E2 Mentoring Sign-Up
realised that there's a plethora of simple ways to construct an integer from something that looks very much
like (but isn't really) a binary value.

Strings would be the obvious candidate; we all know it's possible to construct a binary value from a string. Look at this mess the Death
Borg made!
However, this almost always has to be done at run time; iteration over a variable length string can't be made
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constant, and few compilers are smart enough to realise that a const function with constant parameters
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can be entirely computed at compile time.
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A better candidate for this is C's already existing numerical literals. Digits in every number base greater than OGR
binary can take on the values 0 and 1, as well as other values. We can exploit this by converting a literal Ono-Sendai
(say, octal or decimal) which happens to look a lot like a binary number, (with a wildly differing value) into netism
the value that the corresponding binary number would have.
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Say, for example, we wanted to represent the binary constant 1101bin (Eight and four and one; or thirteen)
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in our program source code. We can express this as a constant function of the integer 1101dec (one
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thousand, one hundred and one). The value of the integer we want to represent (thirteen) is simply (1 if the Rafael van der Vaart
1's digit is 1) + (2 if the 10s digit is 1) + (4 if the 100s digit is 1) + (8 if the 1000s digit is 1). Since this is all
simple arithmetic on constant integers, the literal can be completely evaluated by the compiler at compile
time. Oatie
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Here's a C macro that converts a binary-esque decimal value into an integer with the value that the Darkmaelstrom
corresponding binary would have had: June 8th, 1944 (idea)
etouffee
Erasable (idea)
/* To extract each bit value; divide by appropriate power of 10, Alienof2000
if result has a '1' set in that position, corresponds to
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a 1 in that position in the literal => set bit.
iceowl
This allows us to write the binary value 1101 (thirteen) as How to fly (idea)
BIN(1101), a constant function of the decimal value 1101 DejaMorgana
(one thousand one hundred and one). oats (thing)
*/ Cinderella
#define BIN_BIT(value, bit, dec) ((((unsigned) value/dec)&1 == 1)? (1<<bit) : 0) Happy Birthday, Dad (thing)
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/* Put 10 bits together to form a 10 bit constant. */
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#define BIN(value) \
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( BIN_BIT(value, 0, 1) | \
BIN_BIT(value, 1, 10) | \ savings (idea)

BIN_BIT(value, 2, 100) | \ FredPenner

BIN_BIT(value, 3, 1000) | \ 500 (idea)
BIN_BIT(value, 4, 10000) | \ Sol Invictus
BIN_BIT(value, 5, 100000) | \ Roy Orbison in Clingfilm (idea)
BIN_BIT(value, 6, 1000000) | \ perplexion
BIN_BIT(value, 7, 10000000) | \
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BIN_BIT(value, 8, 100000000) | \
Timeshredder
BIN_BIT(value, 9, 1000000000) )
The Tempest (thing)

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Binary literals in [email protected]

/* GCC-specific: use a 64-bit long long literal to produce a 20-bit artman2003

binary number. */ duck (thing)
#define BIN_BIT64(value, bit, dec) ((((unsigned long long) \ Ivix
value/dec)&1 == 1)? (1<<bit) : 0) King's Quest VI - Heir
(thing)
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#define BIN20(value) \
( BIN_BIT64(value, 0, 1ull) | \
BIN_BIT64(value, 1, 10ull) | \ [ * ] Maintenance
BIN_BIT64(value, 2, 100ull) | \ Node Title Edit
BIN_BIT64(value, 3, 1000ull) | \
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BIN_BIT64(value, 4, 10000ull) | \
BIN_BIT64(value, 5, 100000ull) | \ Writeup Deletion Request
BIN_BIT64(value, 6, 1000000ull) | \ Nodeshell Deletion Request
BIN_BIT64(value, 7, 10000000ull) | \ Node Heaven
BIN_BIT64(value, 8, 100000000ull) | \ E2 Bugs
BIN_BIT64(value, 9, 1000000000ull) | \ Suggestions for E2
BIN_BIT64(value, 10, 10000000000ull) | \
BIN_BIT64(value, 11, 100000000000ull) | \ [ * ] Noding Information
BIN_BIT64(value, 12, 1000000000000ull) | \ E2 HTML Tags
BIN_BIT64(value, 13, 10000000000000ull) | \
HTML symbol reference
BIN_BIT64(value, 14, 100000000000000ull) | \
BIN_BIT64(value, 15, 1000000000000000ull) | \ Using Unicode on E2
BIN_BIT64(value, 16, 10000000000000000ull) | \ Reference Desk
BIN_BIT64(value, 17, 100000000000000000ull) | \
BIN_BIT64(value, 18, 1000000000000000000ull) | \ [ * ] Noding Utilities
BIN_BIT64(value, 19, 10000000000000000000ull) ) E2 Scratch Pad
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There are some obvious caveats with the above code: Text Formatter

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● When writing binary constants, it's tempting to write preceding zeros at the beginning of the number
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to pad it to a fixed number of bits. However, doing this here (eg. BIN(01001011)) would turn the
decimal literal into an octal literal, giving entirely the wrong value. Cool Archive (C! writeups)
● Since decimal needs more than a single bit to represent each digit, the number of digits in literal Page of Cool (Editor Picks)
values is smaller; only 10 bits can be represented by a 32-bit number, or 20 by a 64-bit number. A Year Ago Today
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That being said, however, the above method can be generalised to any number base by using appropriate
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constants, so long as the base is smaller than the largest base that can be represented (base 16) in C's
literal constants. Everything's Most Wanted

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(idea) by Stavr0 (2.2 wk) (print) ? Fri Aug 30 2002 at 18:00:40 Java Chatterbox
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When writing binary constants, it's tempting to write preceding zeros at the beginning of the
number to pad it to a fixed number of bits. However, doing this here (eg. BIN(01001011)) Everything User Poll
would turn the decimal literal into an octal literal, giving entirely the wrong value. Everything Quote Server

The octal literals, far from being a problem, could be used just the same: Donation Box
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#define BIN_BITO(value, shift, mask) (((unsigned)value&mask)>>shift)

/* Put 10 bits together to form a 10 bit constant. */ You must log in first.
#define BINO(value) \
( BIN_BITO(0##value, 0, 01) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 2, 010) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 4, 0100) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 6, 01000) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 8, 010000) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 10, 0100000) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 12, 01000000) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 14, 010000000) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 16, 0100000000) | \
BIN_BITO(0##value, 18, 01000000000) )

If you need bigger bit constants, this simple macro will do:

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 Binary literals in [email protected]

#define BIN32(b24,b16,b8,b0) \
((BINO(b24)&0xff&LT;&LT;24)| \
(BINO(b16)&0xff&LT;&LT;16)| \
(BINO(b8)&0xff&LT;&LT;8) | \
(BINO(b0)&0xff) )

(idea) by tardibear (1 mon) (print) ? 1 C! Wed Sep 04 2002 at 9:39:15

In this case the template meta-programming solution is rather more concise :-

template<int N>
struct B {
enum {Ndiv10 = N / 10};
enum {Nrem10 = N - 10*Ndiv10};
enum {R = Nrem10 + 2*B<Ndiv10>::R};
};

template<>
struct B<0> {
enum {R = 0};
};

...

const int mask = B<100110>::R;

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 C++: computing Fibonacci numbers at compile [email protected]

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C++: computing Fibonacci numbers at compile time

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(thing) by ariels (4.4 hr) (print) ? 1 C! Thu Dec 28 2000 at 7:58:32
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Every programming language enthusiast has written programs to compute the Fibonacci numbers in remember me Login
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every programming language. That's easy, and gets boring pretty soon.
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But C++ enthusiasts can go one better. That's because C++ conforms to the slogan "buy one C++ Create a Node

compiler, get another interpreted language free!". So C++ can compute Fibonacci numbers at [ * ] Read 'Em or Weep
compile time!!!1! Getting Started
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Here's how to do it. Note that the syntax of the compile time language (aka C++ templates) is nothing Everything University
like what you know of C++. This is absolutely normal in C++; every C++ program looks almost Voting/Experience System
exactly nothing like any other C++ program. E2 Mentoring Sign-Up

template<int N> struct fib {

static const int result = fib<N-1>::result + fib<N-2>::result;
}; Look at this mess the Death
Borg made!
struct fib<0> { Pushkin and Gogol
static const int result = 0; These Are Days
}; Underdark
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struct fib<1> { OGR
static const int result = 1; Ono-Sendai
};
netism
#include <iostream> Lardoon
int main(int ac, char *av[]) The Wild Geese
{ Stroop test
std::cout << "Fib(10) = " << fib<10>::result << std::endl; Kenneth Oppel
return 0; Rafael van der Vaart
}
Oatie
C++ advocates will have no problems explaining why this program has linear compilation time in N, Staffordshire Oatcakes (place)
rather than the expected exponential compilation time due to the algorithm used. Interestingly, a Darkmaelstrom
vastly more complicated struct with logarithmic compilation time (see Compute Fibonacci numbers June 8th, 1944 (idea)
FAST! for the algorithm, albeit in readable pseudocode rather than template meta-programming etouffee
nonsense like the above) takes much longer to compile (presumably due to increased complexity). Erasable (idea)
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Warning ampulex compressa (thing)
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You may need to increase your compiler's template depth to compile this code! The gcc incantation is - How to fly (idea)
ftemplate-depth-33 or somesuch. DejaMorgana
oats (thing)
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Happy Birthday, Dad (thing)
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500 (idea)
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Roy Orbison in Clingfilm (idea)
perplexion

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 C++: computing Fibonacci numbers at compile [email protected]

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