bits & bytes

[pelom]

hi,

i have a question regarding a struct definition.
I have a byte data, segemtented like this:

	typedef struct 

{
	char ID;      // 1 BIT (0)
	char Mode;	//3 BIt (1-3)
	char State;	// 4 BIT (4-7)
	char time;	//16 BIT (8-23)
} status_messages;

Question 1:
Is char the correct definition for a bit value ? How do I define a 3 or 4 bit value?

Question 2:
When I want to send this data I need to have the hex value of the first byte (Bit 0 to 7), second (8-15) and third (16-23) byte.
What could be a smoth way to get this hex values?



Thanks a lot !

[cboard_member]

I'm pretty sure a char is 1 byte (8 bits). If you wanted to declare say 4 bytes:

char someBytes[4];

No idea how you declare single bits in C.

Not sure about the hex question sorry.

[Ancient Dragon]

typedef struct 
{
	unsigned  ID:1 ;      // 1 BIT (0)
	unsigned  Mode:3;	//3 BIt (1-3)
	unsigned State:4;	// 4 BIT (4-7)
	unsigned time:16;	//16 BIT (8-23)
} status_messages;

Here is the correct definition of the 24 bits. On 32-bit computers, there will be 8 bits undefined (unused) to round out the size of an unsigned integer.

2. Send it how? To what?

[cwr]

char is indeed a byte, not necessarily 8 bits, but inevitably 8 bits on all modern machines.

For individual bits, you can use bitfields, see http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c...bitfields.html. Note, I haven't verified that url for accuracy, I just googled for bitfields. The problem with using bitfields, though, is that the implementation defines the ordering.

Your alternative would be to store the whole thing in a long int (which is at least 32 bits), and use bitwise operators to mask and set each portion appropriately.

As for converting to hex, look up sprintf.

[pelom]

Thanks, for all the answers. This definitions looks like what I need:

typedef struct 
{
	unsigned  ID:1 ;      // 1 BIT (0)
	unsigned  Mode:3;	//3 BIt (1-3)
	unsigned State:4;	// 4 BIT (4-7)
	unsigned time:16;	//16 BIT (8-23)
} status_messages;

But later I need to construct bit sequences for example:

data[0] = 8 bit = x x x (Mode) x x x (State) x x (LSB and MSB of Time)

How is this possible?

[cwr]

You need to use a combination of bitwise operators including shifting.

See http://www.phim.unibe.ch/comp_doc/c_...T/bitwise.html and other google results for C bitwise operators.

As for the bitwise sequence construction, please me more clear on what you want. You've said data[0] is 8 bits, but then shown mode (3 bits), state (4 bits), lsb and msb of time. By lsb and msb do you mean least significant bit or byte? regardless, it won't add up to 8 bits.

[pelom]

It's true, in this line

data[0] = 8 bit = x x x (Mode) x x x (State) x x (LSB and MSB of Time)

I come up with 9 bits. I will avoid bitoperations by using a union:

typedef union
{
    struct {
	unsigned  ID:1 ;      // 1 BIT (0)
	unsigned  Mode:3;	//3 BIt (1-3)
	unsigned State:4;	// 4 BIT (4-7)
	unsigned time:16;	//16 BIT (8-23)
              } stucture;
       unsigned char bytes [3];
} status_messages;

But I have no idea how to access the LSB / MSB (LAst significant bit) of for instance the time

[Salem]

> I come up with 9 bits. I will avoid bitoperations by using a union:
This is non-portable
1. There is nothing which says that the size of all your bit-fields should be the same as the size of your char array.
2. There is nothing which says that the lsb of bytes[0] would correspond to say ID.

If you're looking to pack bits into a byte stream, then you have to do it yourself, a union and bit-fields isn't going to work portably.

[itsme86]

The bit operations aren't difficult. Here's an example:

itsme@itsme:~/C$ cat bitfield.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

int main(void)
{
  uint32_t bitfield;

  bitfield = 1;            // Set the ID, 1 bit
  bitfield |= 5 << 1;      // Set the Mode, 3 bits
  bitfield |= 12 << 4;     // Set the State, 4 bits
  bitfield |= 12345 << 8;  // Set the Time, 16 bits

  printf("ID: %d, Mode: %d, State: %d, Time: %d\n",
    bitfield & 0x1, (bitfield >> 1) & 0x7,
    (bitfield >> 4) & 0xF, (bitfield >> 8) & 0xFFFF);

  return 0;
}

itsme@itsme:~/C$ ./bitfield
ID: 1, Mode: 5, State: 12, Time: 12345
itsme@itsme:~/C$