Help with finding bit states?

[Justin]

Ok, I'm learning C++ (teaching myself). I understand code, I know HTML very well and other things, however most of what I knew was higher then C++, so I never learned how to translate that. I eventually plan to move on to Assembler, but I'd rather get c++ down first. My problem is this.

How do I determine the state of the bits from a hex offset? For instance, if I have 0x1ff, or 0x1fe, or 0xfff, how do I determine what the bits are at that moment?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Nodsu]

So you want to check individual bits in a number or individual bits in a bit array?

For checking bits, you use the bitwise AND (&).

If you want to chek for the first bit (LSB), you & the number with 0x1 (0000 0001 binary).
If the result is zero (false), the bit was not set.

if(chicken & 0x2) { // If bit 2 is set, do something

For the second bit, you & the number with 0x2 (0000 0010 binary) .
For the third bit, use constant 0x4 (0000 0100 binary).

If you want to set bits, use the bitwise OR (|).

Set first bit in varaible 'chicken':
chicken |= 0x1;

For clearing bits, AND with inversed constants.

Clear bit #4 in 'chicken':
chicken &= 0xF7; // 1111 0111 binary

If you want to flip a bit, use XOR (^).
Flip bit 2 in 'chicken':
chicken ^= 0x2;

Some compilers also support some less standard ways of accessing individual bits
(Borland for example), that are somewhat simpler to use.

If you hava a huge array of bits, and want to find the value of nth bit in that array:

- Divide the bit offset by 8 , you'll get a byte offset to the previous byte.
- Read the next byte.
- Use the remainder from the division in a 'switch' to get access to individual bits.


Of course, you could serach the net and find heaps of libraries containing functions
to do bit manipulations and save yourself the trouble.

 

[Justin]

Awesome... heh... exactly what I needed.

That helps a lot. Thanks!