Displaying A Byte As A Bit String

[jburrow]

I'm in the middle of debugging a data stream, using many 'debug.print cstrhex(byte)' type statements. Then I have to do hex arithmetic in my head to figure out which bits are on and which bits are off.

As I'm looking at bit values, I have been trying to find s statement like 'debug.print cstrbit(byte)', where the resulting output would be a series of 0's and 1's, but I'm not seeing anything obvious.

Are there any suggestions please?

Thanks, John Burrow
San Diego
Having fun, out of the sun

[dkinzer]

Then I have to do hex arithmetic in my head to figure out which bits are on and which bits are off.

That is a good skill to have, by the way. Practice, practice, practice.

I have been trying to find s statement like 'debug.print cstrbit(byte)'

There isn't any such function in the ZBasic System Library. Such a function is easy to create, however. The code below will work for a Byte value.

Code: Select all

'
'' CStrBits
'
' Convert a byte to a string of eight characters giving the binary
' representation of the value.
'
Function CStrBits(ByVal val as Byte) as String
    Dim data(1 to 8) as Byte
    Dim i as Integer
    Dim mask as Byte

    mask = &H80
    For i = 1 to 8
        data(i) = IIF(CBool(val And Mask), Asc("0"), Asc("1"))
        mask = Shr(mask, 1)
    Next i
    CStrBits = MakeString(data.DataAddress, 8)
End Function

Sub Main()
    Dim s as String
    s = CStrBits(&H5a)
    Debug.Print s
End Sub

If you want the same functionality for other data types you can use the overload capability to create like-named functions with a different parameter list.