Re^5: calculating the 3 MSBs from an integer

that was it! And I'm using Linux btw, it's been ages since I used MS ;-)
but i still don't understand why the & 0xFF is required... without it, it seems to work as well

--
to ask a question is a moment of shame
to remain ignorant is a lifelong shame

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Re^6: calculating the 3 MSBs from an integer by Random_Walk (Prior) on Feb 17, 2005 at 22:20 UTC
Hi Again, Sorry for implying allegiance to Redmond ;). Back home now and just given it a taz on x86/Linux and I get the same reversed byte order. I guess it is the Intel architecture not the OS. Sadly my Alpha/Linux is in another country and offline so no testing possible there. I will try it on a SPARC at work tomorrow just for fun. The & 0xff is a bit mask that will only drop through bits from the first (8 bit) byte. If I take it off when I get to 256 my total goes up to 8 (Intel/Linux). As long as your input is only 1 byte then it will not be a problem. `perl -le'print join "\t", $_, (unpack "B*", pack "N", $_), $_ >>5 for +(0..256)' <snip> 254 00000000000000000000000011111110 7 255 00000000000000000000000011111111 7 256 00000000000000000000000100000000 8` [download] Cheers, R. Pereant, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!	[reply] [d/l]
Re^7: calculating the 3 MSBs from an integer by insaniac (Friar) on Feb 18, 2005 at 06:43 UTC
ah thanks! now i understand... and at work, i also have a (ultra)sparc(5) with debian linux on it ;-) -- to ask a question is a moment of shame to remain ignorant is a lifelong shame	[reply]