# GET16() GET32() PUT16() PUT32()

Gets or Writes data to a file.

Syntax

value = GET16( buffer [ ,offset [ ,byteorder ]] )

value = GET32( buffer [ ,offset [ ,byteorder ]] )

binval = PUT16( value [ ,byteorder ] )

binval = PUT32( value [ ,byteorder ] )

Version Ref: 5.6

The GETnn functions retrieve a binary value from a buffer, and the PUTnn functions convert the value into binary. The offset parameter specifies the zero-relative offset within the buffer where the value resides. The byteorder parameter specifies the byte order of the binary value, with "L" meaning little-endian, "B" meaning big-endian, and the default being the native order of the current system.

For example, to get the 32-bit little-endian value at offset 8 within the MyBuffer variable, you would use:

value = GET32(MyBuffer,"8","L")

To convert the RouterHandle variable into a 16-bit little-endian value, you would use:

value = PUT16(RouterHandle,"L")

Note that 8-bit values can already be read/written using the existing ASC and CHR functions.

These functions are used more easily interpret the contents, where READ()/WRITE() could access the data, but interpreting the contents would require a bit of work to extract/build the binary data.

For example, you want to get information about a .BMP file. Within the file is a BITMAPINFOHEADER structure, defined in C as:

typedef struct tagBITMAPINFOHEADER

{

DWORD biSize;

LONG biWidth;

LONG biHeight;

WORD biPlanes;

WORD biBitCount;

DWORD biCompression;

DWORD biSizeImage;

LONG biXPelsPerMeter;

LONG biYPelsPerMeter;

DWORD biClrUsed;

} BITMAPINFOHEADER;

After you read the information with:

xx = read(handle,MyBuffer,"40")

You want to extract the information from it:

biSize = GET32(MyBuffer)

biWidth = GET32(MyBuffer,"4")

biHeight = GET32(MyBuffer,"8")

biPlanes = GET16(MyBuffer,"12")

biBitCount = GET16(MyBuffer,"14")

... and so on ...

If you wanted to write out the information, you could build the buffer using the PUT16/PUT32 functions:

MyBuffer = PUT32(biSize) & PUT32(biWidth) & PUT32(biHeight) & PUT16(biPlanes) & PUT16(biBitCOunt) & ...etc...

It may also be the case that the file is always in a specific endian byte order, regardless of the platform you are running filePro on. (For example, binary data sent via TCP/IP is almost always sent in big-endian order, even on little-endian platforms.) In that case, you would pass an explicit "L" or "B" endian parameter to force the byte order.