# BIN2L()

Convert signed long encoded bytes into Harbour numeric

Syntax

  BIN2L( <cBuffer> ) --> nNumber

Arguments

  <cBuffer> is a character string that contain 32 bit encoded signed long integer (least significant byte first). The first four bytes are taken into account, the rest if any are ignored.

Returns

  BIN2L() return numeric integer (or 0 if <cBuffer> is not a string).

Description

  BIN2L() is one of the low level binary conversion functions, those functions convert between Harbour numeric and a character representation of numeric value. BIN2L() take four bytes of encoded 32 bit signed long integer and convert it into standard Harbour numeric value.
  You might ask what is the need for such functions, well, first of all it allow you to read/write information from/to a binary file (like extracting information from DBF header), it is also a useful way to share information from source other than Harbour (C for instance).
  BIN2L() is the opposite of L2BIN()

Examples

          // Show number of records in DBF
          FUNCTION main()
          LOCAL nHandle, cBuffer := space( 4 )
          nHandle := fopen( "test.dbf" )
          IF nHandle > 0
             fseek( nHandle, 4 )
             fread( nHandle, @cBuffer, 4 )
             ? "Number of records in file:", BIN2L( cBuffer )
             fclose( nHandle )
          ELSE
             ? "Can not open file"
          ENDIF
          RETURN NIL

Status

  Ready

Compliance

  BIN2L() works exactly like CA-Clipper's BIN2L()

Files

  Library is rtl

See Also

- BIN2I()
- BIN2U()
- BIN2W()
- I2BIN()
- L2BIN()
- W2BIN()
- WORD()
- U2BIN()
- FREAD()