Bitstrings
A bitstring is another special kind of string, made up of a compressed series of bits. A 32K variable can hold almost 256K bits. There are special functions for creating and working with bitstrings.
-
$Bit retrieves or sets (used with Set) a bit to 1 or 0. The examples below use $Random(2) to randomly generate either a 1 or a 0.
-
$BitCount counts bits.
-
$BitFind finds the next bit with a specific value (1 or 0).
-
$BitLogic performs bit-wise operations (and, or, not, xor) on bitstrings.
-
$Factor converts an integer to the bitstring representing it. For example, $Factor(20) returns the bitstring 00101 (only the bits whose place values are 4 and 16 are set).
Since the bitstring is compressed, you shouldn't Write it—either use $Bit, or you can use the ZWrite command, which shows both the byte and bit contents.
USER>for i = 1:1:40 {set $bit(b, i) = $random(2)} USER>write $bitcount(b, 0) 23 USER>write $bitcount(b, 1) 17 USER>for i = 1:1:40 {write $bit(b, i)} 0100110001000110101011001100010010000111 USER>write $bitfind(b, 1, 1) // find the first 1 bit, starting at position 1 2 USER>write $bitfind(b, 0, 1) // find the first 0 bit, starting at position 1 1 USER>write $bitfind(b, 1, 3) // find the next 1 bit, starting at position 3 5 USER>for i = 1:1:40 {set $bit(c, i) = $random(2)} USER>set d = $bitlogic(b & c) USER>for i = 1:1:40 {write $bit(b, i)} 0100110001000110101011001100010010000111 USER>for i = 1:1:40 {write $bit(c, i)} 0111001111001011110100100110101110111011 USER>for i = 1:1:40 {write $bit(d, i)} 0100000001000010100000000100000010000011 USER>set f = $factor(3456) USER>zwrite f // shows the bits representing 3456 f=$zwc(128,4)_$c(128,13,0,0)/*$bit(8,9,11,12)*/ USER>set sum = 0 write !, sum for i=8,9,11,12 { set sum = sum + (2 ** (i-1)) write " + 2**", (i-1) } write " = ", sum 0 + 2**7 + 2**8 + 2**10 + 2**11 = 3456 USER>
Provides the following methods to convert to bitstrings:
-
StringToBit()
-
ZBitToBit()
Availability: All namespaces.