matz / ruby-lang.org (Yukihiro Matsumoto) writes:

> Hi,
>
> In message "dots in hex printf"
>     on 03/04/21, Ed L Cashin <ecashin / uga.edu> writes:
>
> |Hi.  I was wondering why there are dots in printing out a hexadecimal
> |number: 
>
> You were trying to print negative numbers in hexadecimal.  Ruby
> assumes virtual infinite on-bits leftward for negative numbers.  Dots
> represents omitted bits on left side.  If you don't want those dots,
> specify format precision (e.g. "%.5x"), or bit-and with mask bits
> (e.g. x & 0xffff).

OK, thanks.  I have always thought of printf as treating the argument
associated with %x as unsigned (in which case I suppose there wouldn't
be an infinite sign extension), but I can adjust.

-- 
--Ed L Cashin     PGP public key: http://noserose.net/e/pgp/