Re: Octal Conversion in VB

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@attbi.com>]

Ludovic Brenta wrote:

> Here is a general algorithm that does what you want.  Note that you
> need some mathematical background to understand why there are
> log(N)/log(8) octal digits in any integer number.

I think chrissy was actually looking to convert (ASCII?) characters into 
octal triplets. Something more like what follows. (I almost feel I 
should apolgize for all the formatting and usage code, because it tends 
to obscure what is going on. On the other hand, the conversion to octal 
not hex or decimal is chosen by the number in the line with the 8 is 
base comment. (Actually for decimal I'd omit the ten and change the 
dimensions of Temp, but that is a detail. ;-)

with Ada.Text_IO; use Ada.Text_IO;
with Ada.Integer_Text_IO; use Ada.Integer_Text_IO;
with Ada.Command_Line; use Ada.Command_Line;
procedure Octal is -- a program to convert text strings into octal.
   Temp: String(1..6);
begin
   if Argument_Count /= 1
   then
     Put_Line(" Usage: octal ""string""");
     Put_Line(" If the string does not contain blanks or other special 
command line");
     Put_Line(" characters, the parentheses may be omitted.");
     Set_Exit_Status(Failure);
     return;
   end if;

   for I in Argument(1)'Range loop
     if Col >= 80 then New_Line; end if;
     Put(Temp,Character'Pos(Argument(1)(I)),8); -- 8 is base
     pragma Debug(Put_Line('"' & Temp & '"'));
     if Temp(2) = ' '
     then Temp(3..4) := "00";
     elsif Temp(1) = ' '
     then Temp(3) := '0';
     end if; -- change leading blanks to zeros
     Put(' ');
     Put(Temp(3..5));
   end loop;

end Octal;

with output:

E:\Ada\Test>octal "This is a very long string..."
octal "This is a very long string..."
  124 150 151 163 040 151 163 040 141 040 166 145 162 171 040 154 157 
156 147 040
  163 164 162 151 156 147 056 056 056

E:\Ada\Test>octal foobar
octal foobar
  146 157 157 142 141 162

E:\Ada\Test>octal
octal
  Usage: octal "string"
  If the string does not contain blanks or other special command line
  characters, the parentheses may be omitted.

-- 
                                      Robert I. Eachus

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