Question

I wanted to know how does writeInt treat a 32 bit unsigned or a signed integer passed to it?

It is easy to understand that how it works with a hexadecimal number. Util.Print will print the corresponding ASCII Characters.

0x41424344 will be broken down into 4 1 byte characters, A, B, C and D.

It seems like its different when an integer is passed to writeInt.

for instance,

var test: ByteArray = new ByteArray();
test.writeInt(0x41424344); // prints ABCD
test.writeInt(2590463591); // prints gVg
test.writeInt(1119885898);  // prints BÀJ

I am unclear how the Util.Print function treats the integers written into the ByteArray by writeInt.

The characters, gVg do not correspond to the integer number, 2590463591

According to the definition of writeInt here:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/livecycle/es/sdkHelp/common/langref/flash/utils/ByteArray.html#writeInt%28%29

It states that it works with a 32 Bit Signed Integer.

If someone can elaborate over how it translates the integers to characters, it would be helpful.

EDIT: And how does it handle negative integers?

For instance,

test.writeInt(-11338743); // prints ÿRü 

So,

-11338743 = 0xFF52FC09

is that correct?

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you interpret encoded bytes as ASCII

dec          hex          ascii
1094861636 = 0x41424344 = ABCD
2590463591 = 0x9A675667 = gVg
1119885898 = 0x42C01A4A = BÀJ

Also, note that int vs unsigned int would implement different functions:

var test:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
test.writeInt(0x41424344);
test.writeUnsignedInt(0x41424344);