04-26-2025, 01:59 PM
&H is HEX
&B is Binary
&O is Octal
So if you just say FFFF, that's a variable called FFFF -- but &HFFFF is the number -1. (It's a signed integer and in hex, a signed integer of FFFF is -1.)
X = FFFF << Assigning the variable FFFF's value to X.
X = &HFFFF& << Assigning the long hex value of FFFF to X. (65535, in this case.)
Same with Binary.
10 = ... well, 10. It's a normal decimal number.
&B10 = 2, represented as a binary number.
&B101 = 5, and so on.
So VAL will work with your variables, but it doesn't work exactly the same as the &H, &B, &O variations do directly from the IDE.
PRINT &HFFFF << -- this will print -1
PRINT VAL("&HFFFF") <<-- this will print 65535.
Note that in hex, both -1 *and* 65535 are represented by FFFF -- depending on if you have a signed integer or an unsigned integer that you're casting the value to. Both are *correct* answers, but they're not *consistent* -- which is what this little routine works to fix for us. It doesn't mix signed and unsigned and keeps consistent results for us.
Think SQR(4).... Both 2 *and* -2 are proper answers to that SQR(4), though we usually only ever deal with the positive result. In this case it would be like saying:
PRINT SQR(4) <--- prints 2.
PRINT VAL("SQR(4)") <--- prints -2.
Both are technically correct, but the results aren't consistent with each other and that can be a real PITA if you're comparing direct values vs string parsed values.
&B is Binary
&O is Octal
So if you just say FFFF, that's a variable called FFFF -- but &HFFFF is the number -1. (It's a signed integer and in hex, a signed integer of FFFF is -1.)
X = FFFF << Assigning the variable FFFF's value to X.
X = &HFFFF& << Assigning the long hex value of FFFF to X. (65535, in this case.)
Same with Binary.
10 = ... well, 10. It's a normal decimal number.
&B10 = 2, represented as a binary number.
&B101 = 5, and so on.
So VAL will work with your variables, but it doesn't work exactly the same as the &H, &B, &O variations do directly from the IDE.
PRINT &HFFFF << -- this will print -1
PRINT VAL("&HFFFF") <<-- this will print 65535.
Note that in hex, both -1 *and* 65535 are represented by FFFF -- depending on if you have a signed integer or an unsigned integer that you're casting the value to. Both are *correct* answers, but they're not *consistent* -- which is what this little routine works to fix for us. It doesn't mix signed and unsigned and keeps consistent results for us.
Think SQR(4).... Both 2 *and* -2 are proper answers to that SQR(4), though we usually only ever deal with the positive result. In this case it would be like saying:
PRINT SQR(4) <--- prints 2.
PRINT VAL("SQR(4)") <--- prints -2.
Both are technically correct, but the results aren't consistent with each other and that can be a real PITA if you're comparing direct values vs string parsed values.