Re: BYTES to LONG

[Craig Markwardt <craigmnet(at)cow.physics.wisc.edu>]

Kelly Dean <krdean@lamar.colostate.edu> writes:

>  Thanks Paul,
> 
>  Your suggestion solved my problem.
> 
>    long_x = TOTAL( ISHFT( LONG(x), [24,16,8,0] ) )

Hi Kelly--

While this may seem to work, I agree with JD that this is a bit
dangerous since it converts to floating point.  The expression 

long_x = long(x, 0, 1)

should produce the same, and correct, result, without invoking any
floating point conversions.  However you may have to worry about
so-called "endian" issues, that is byte ordering differences between
machines.  A routine in the IDL Astronomy Library like IEEE_TO_HOST
should be able to help you there.

Craig


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Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D.         EMAIL:    craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
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