how to make a for loop for a binary number ?

I want to build a program that converts from binary to decimal (I know that there is command for this , I want to build it my self ) so for exmple if

x=10010

I want to press x(3) and get 0 ( just like if i have an array of numbers for exmaple x=[1 42 13 ] so x(2)=42 ) how do i do it ?

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

In MATLAB binary numbers are normally stored as char vectors:

>> x = '10010'
x = 10010
>> x(3)
ans = 0
>> bin2dec(x)
ans =  18

You could put them as separate elements of a numeric array, but there is little advantage to this (and it makes displaying them harder). Note that the conversion from char vector to numeric vector (and back again) is trivial:

>> y = x-'0'
y =
   1   0   0   1   0
>> char(y+'0')
ans = 10010

As an alternative you could write your own class (not trivial).

[Guillaume]

Storing the bits as 0/1 digits of a numeric array has the slight advantage that you can apply OR, XOR, AND and CMP operations (using |, xor, & and ~ respectively, not the bitxxx operators), as long as the bits are aligned of course.

Arithmetics (addition, subtraction, etc.) is still out with either model.