BITSE function

Purpose

Compare integral values for equivalent bits regardless of sign.

Syntax

x& = BITSE(nexp, nexp, bitsize)

Remarks

This function allows you to compare two integral values for equivalent bit patterns, regardless of whether they are signed or unsigned values.  The two numeric expressions (nexp) are the integral values to be compared,  The bitsize parameter specifies the number of bits to be compared, 8, 16, or 32.

For example, the integer value -1 and the word value 65535 both have the identical bit pattern: 1111111111111111.  The difference is simply the way the bits are interpreted by a program.

x& = BITSE( -1, 65535, 16)

The above example would cause the lowest 16 bits of the expressions to be compared.  Since they are equal, the value TRUE (-1) is returned.

See also

BITS