Cool! I think the extra step will be instructive anyways (that strings are not bits, and that bits have different interpretations depending on the type).
> On 17 Feb 2016, at 8:14 AM, Jacob Quinn <[email protected]> wrote: > > There is the parse(type, str[, base]) function that will parse *integers* of > a given base (link to doc: > http://docs.julialang.org/en/release-0.4/stdlib/numbers/?highlight=binary#Base.parse > > <http://docs.julialang.org/en/release-0.4/stdlib/numbers/?highlight=binary#Base.parse>), > but floats are always parsed as decimal. But using reinterpret, you could do > > julia> str = bits(1.0f0) > "00111111100000000000000000000000" > > julia> int = parse(Int32,str,2) > 1065353216 > > julia> reinterpret(Float32,int) > 1.0f0 > > > -Jacob > > On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 2:07 PM, Sheehan Olver <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > I'm lecturing a course that will include basic machine arithmetic, and the > bits function looks very helpful. But is there a way to go back? I.e., I > want a frombits to do: > > > str=bits(1.0f0) # returns "00111111100000000000000000000000" > frombits(Float32,str) # should return 1.0f0 > > >
