Posted by Mathias K. on 03/11/07 16:52

Hello everyone!

I'm currently dealing a lot with binary data.
Therefore it is sometimes that i have to read or write
single bits. What is the best way to do that?

For example let it be one single byte where the first 5 bits
contain a certain information, and the rest belongs to the next
binary block.

Now i get those 5 bits as follows: <<<PHP

// $fp is a filepointer to an open binary file

$byte = fread($fp, 1); // one byte
$bin = decbin( ord( $byte ) );

$fivebits = bindec( substr($byte, 0, 5) );

PHP;

Well that seems kind of long winded to me.
Isn't there are better, quicker and more elegant way to do that in PHP?
Because right now i don't know of any.


Thanks for any hints in advance.

~ MK

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