Convert MQL double to IEEE-754 binary or hexadecimal string or byte array

[Phil]

In stdlib there is a function called IntegerToHexString that converts an integer to a hexadecimal string.

However I need a function that converts a double in MQL to a binary or hexadecimal string based on the IEEE-754 format.

The procedure is outlined here: IEEE 754 Standard for Floating Point Representation of Real Numbers

Has anyone implemented the algorithm in MQL already?

Alternatively, is there a way to convert a double to a byte array? I know that there is no byte data type in MQL, but an array of integers with the values of the bytes (8 bits each) would do.

[mike_s]

You can to that using Mql5 bitwise operators. I'm not sure about that in Mql4. You can find more info on mql5 book in the related section.

[Phil]

The bitwise operators in mql4 (<<, >>, &, |, ^) only work for integers.

[traderzen]

This is old thread but it is unclosed and it is better to write here then to create duplicate threads.

Is another method rather than this for mql4?

FileSeek(...,0,SEEK_SET);FileWriteDouble...;FileFlush...FileSeek(...,0,SEEK_SET);uchar b[8];FileReadArray(...,b);

this will cost ~ 50 microseconds

[Stanislav Korotky]

Use the library TypeToBytes.

[traderzen]

Stanislav Korotky:
Use the library TypeToBytes.

The program at the link has good features with structures.

But not relevant to my application.

The program at the link is writing and reading a file "Casting.tmp". I asked to transform one double to 8 bytes without FileOpen. It's the same way, I think.

[Stanislav Korotky]

traderzen:

The program at the link has good features with structures.

But not relevant to my application.

The program at the link is writing and reading a file "Casting.tmp". I asked to transform one double to 8 bytes without FileOpen. It's the same way, I think.

Are you kidding? The link is for the library, which you can use as you want. Example code on the page shows you how you can convert many different types to bytes, forward and back. No file operations at all.

[traderzen]

Stanislav Korotky:

Are you kidding? The link is for the library, which you can use as you want. Example code on the page shows you how you can convert many different types to bytes, forward and back. No file operations at all.

ok, i debugged the example again.

Again, for every printed example (regarding this thread, _R(Tick).Bytes[8] is the first byte for a double), it is opening "Casting.tmp", write, read, return value.

Of course it's just me who's debugging this way.

[Stanislav Korotky]

traderzen:

ok, i debugged the example again.

Again, for every printed example (regarding this thread, _R(Tick).Bytes[8] is the first byte for a double), it is opening "Casting.tmp", write, read, return value.

Of course it's just me who's debugging this way.

Just don't use TYPETOBYTES_FULL_SLOW declaration.

PS. The file routine is a new feature forcedly introduces after some crucial changes (limitations) in MQL itself.

[Alain Verleyen]

Phil:

In stdlib there is a function called IntegerToHexString that converts an integer to a hexadecimal string.

However I need a function that converts a double in MQL to a binary or hexadecimal string based on the IEEE-754 format.

The procedure is outlined here: IEEE 754 Standard for Floating Point Representation of Real Numbers

Has anyone implemented the algorithm in MQL already?

Alternatively, is there a way to convert a double to a byte array? I know that there is no byte data type in MQL, but an array of integers with the values of the bytes (8 bits each) would do.

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Union to get binary/hexa IEEE754 representation of a double      |   
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
   union IEEE754_64
     {
      double            value;
      uchar             bytes[8];

      //+------------------------------------------------------------------+
      //| Convert uchar array into hex string                              |
      //+------------------------------------------------------------------+
      string BytesToString(void)
        {
         string res="0x";
         for(int i=7;i>=0;i--)
           {
            StringAdd(res,StringFormat("%.2X",(int)bytes[i]));
           }
         return(res);
        }
     };

Test code :

   IEEE754_64 test={1.2345};
   printf("Double value %s has IEEE754 hexadecimal representation %s",(string)test.value,test.BytesToString());

Output :

Double value 1.2345 has IEEE754 hexadecimal representation 0x3FF3C083126E978D

[traderzen]

This

union

solution is the answer:

"Union is a special data type consisting of several variables sharing the same memory area."

mql