Austin

I've written a Java external that deals, internally, with a long value. I print out the variable value with a post statement and it works fine. I see the entire number.

However, when I do "output(2, maxID);" it is mangling the value (shortening it).

However, when I do "output(2, maxID);" it is mangling the value (shortening it).
Is there a way to output a long?


possible-to-output-a-long

You'd need to either output it as a symbol or a float I think. (In the case of the former, you'd have to keep it a symbol until you pass it to something (another Mxj) that could parse that, so float probably makes more sense.

You could send it out as two 32-bit words. Really depends on what you're using it for, I suppose. (Time stamps?)

You'd need to either output it as a symbol or a float I think.  (In the case of the former, you'd have to keep it a symbol until you pass it to something (another Mxj) that could parse that, so float probably makes more sense.

You could send it out as two 32-bit words.  Really depends on what you're using it for, I suppose.  (Time stamps?)


Note that if you use floats there is a potential for losing precision. 32-bit floats have a 24-bit manitissa, so any integer >= 16,777,216 will lose precision. With 64-bit floats the mantissa weighs in at around 56 bits, so that's at least well into the "long long" range, but also starts truncating the low-end digits at around 70,000,000,000,000,000.

That would still suffice for most international telephone numbers.

What is the reason for the astronomical values? There's an off chance that there might be a clever approach for certain special uses.

Note that if you use floats there is a potential for losing precision. 32-bit floats have a 24-bit manitissa, so any integer >= 16,777,216 will lose precision. With 64-bit floats the mantissa weighs in at around 56 bits, so that's at least well into the "long long" range, but also starts truncating the low-end digits at around 70,000,000,000,000,000. 

What is the reason for the astronomical values? There's an off chance that there might be a clever approach for certain special uses.


How about splitting into a pair of ints and outputting those? (You'd need to be a bit careful about sign-extension in the calculations, but it would work.)

Possible to output a long?