[erlang-questions] binary elements greater than 255

[Kostis Sagonas]

Zvi wrote:
> Is this a bug?
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.6 [smp:2] [async-threads:0]
> 
> Eshell V5.6  (abort with ^G)
> 1>  
> 1> <<0,255>>.
> <<0,255>>
> 2> <<0,256>>.
> <<0,0>>
> 3> <<0,257>>.
> <<0,1>>
> 4> <<0,65536>>.
> <<0,0>>

No, this is not a bug.  This is how binary construction is defined.
The think that confuses you is that when you e.g. write

   <<0,256>>

you are most probably forgetting that this is just a shorthand for the
construct

   <<0:8/integer-unsigned,256:8/integer-unsigned>>

so you are effectively telling the Erlang system:

   I want you to consider 0 and 256 as unsigned integers
   take the last 8 bits of each of them and form a 16 bit binary.

Hence the results.  This is consistent with

   1> <<255:4>>.
   <<15:4>>
   2> <<-255:4>>.
   <<1:4>>
   3> <<-1:5>>.
   <<31:5>>

Hope this explains things.

Kostis