Thread Subject:

how to convert from binary floating point to decimal?

I have data that represented in 32 bit binary floating point ("1000111111100010010000000000000" for example equals x"47F12000" in hex and 123456 in decimal.) I'd like to use matlab to convert my binary string, into a decimal number. I've been told that matlab can do this, but have been unable to figure out how.

Can you help?

On Feb 4, 4:48 pm, "Benjamin Blanton" <benjamin.blan...@lmco.com>
wrote:
> I have data that represented in 32 bit binary floating point  ("1000111111100010010000000000000" for example equals x"47F12000" in hex and 123456 in decimal.)  I'd like to use matlab to convert my binary string, into a decimal number.  I've been told that matlab can do this, but have been unable to figure out how.
>
> Can you help?

dec2bin

> dec2bin

I'm aware of dec2bin and bin2dec, but my data is represented in floating point. I'm not interested in what "1000111111100010010000000000000" is simply in decimal, It's a binary number representing a floating point:
Sign Exponent Significand
1 8 23 bits

Benjamin Blanton wrote:
>> dec2bin
>
> I'm aware of dec2bin and bin2dec, but my data is represented in floating
> point. I'm not interested in what "1000111111100010010000000000000" is
> simply in decimal, It's a binary number representing a floating point:
> Sign Exponent Significand
> 1 8 23 bits


NumAsFloat32 = typecast( uint32( bin2dec( NumAsString ) ), 'float')

Or maybe it is 'single' instead of 'float'; a pain to check at the moment.

Walter Roberson <roberson@hushmail.com> wrote in message <hkeuf6$93u$2@canopus.cc.umanitoba.ca>...
> Benjamin Blanton wrote:
> >> dec2bin
> >
> > I'm aware of dec2bin and bin2dec, but my data is represented in floating
> > point. I'm not interested in what "1000111111100010010000000000000" is
> > simply in decimal, It's a binary number representing a floating point:
> > Sign Exponent Significand
> > 1 8 23 bits
>
>
> NumAsFloat32 = typecast( uint32( bin2dec( NumAsString ) ), 'float')
>
> Or maybe it is 'single' instead of 'float'; a pain to check at the moment.

awesome thanks!

Walter Roberson <roberson@hushmail.com> wrote in message <hkeuf6$93u$2@canopus.cc.umanitoba.ca>...
> Benjamin Blanton wrote:
> >> dec2bin
> >
> > I'm aware of dec2bin and bin2dec, but my data is represented in floating
> > point. I'm not interested in what "1000111111100010010000000000000" is
> > simply in decimal, It's a binary number representing a floating point:
> > Sign Exponent Significand
> > 1 8 23 bits
>
>
> NumAsFloat32 = typecast( uint32( bin2dec( NumAsString ) ), 'float')
>
> Or maybe it is 'single' instead of 'float'; a pain to check at the moment.

Very helpful, that. Thanks much. Surprising MATLAB doesn't have a more direct function to get this.