1D array to Cluster of Clusters

[JScherer]

I'm looking to turn a long array of u8 received from a 3rd party application into a cluster of status elements (cluster of clusters)

I don't like how I'm repeating the split 1d array and array to cluster conversion. Although this works for 3 elements, I wouldn't want to do it for 20. Can I set up the conversion in a more extensible way?  

[GerdW]

Hi JScherer,

the conversion can be made much simpler:

When you want to repeat a process step you should use a loop!

So place the conversion into a (while) loop and repeat until the remaining array is empty (or smaller then needs to be). You can also use a FOR loop when you calculate the number of conversions from array size…

[altenbach]

Well, the problem is that you can't really use a loop efficiently, because clusters are fixed in size and you cannot e.g. have an array  where each element is a cluster with a different number of elements.

Maybe you want to re-think your data structures. For example you could have an output array where each element is a cluster of an array. Now each element can be of different size.

[crossrulz · Accepted solution]

To steal from altenbach, you can do this with post-card sized code.  You just need the Byte Array To String followed by the Unflatten From String.

[altenbach · Accepted solution]

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@crossrulz wrote:

To steal from altenbach, you can do this with post-card sized code. 

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Gerd already mentioned something very similar, but it was hard to notice because he also left the original code next to it. 😉

And, no you were not stealing anything because my solution would have looked as follows:

[GerdW]

Hi,

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@altenbach wrote:

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@crossrulz wrote:

To steal from altenbach, you can do this with post-card sized code. 

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Gerd already mentioned something very similar, but it was hard to notice because he also left the original code next to it. 😉

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Yes, by decision to allow comparison of original convoluted approach with that simple TypeCast replacement…

[crossrulz]

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@GerdW wrote:
Yes, by decision to allow comparison of original convoluted approach with that simple TypeCast replacement…

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I am just not a fan of the Type Cast function.  I have been burned too many times by Little Endian formats.  So I always go for the Unflatten From String to guard against that (simply add a constant to state the Endianness instead of adding who knows how much code to swap bytes and words, etc).

[altenbach]

Yes, I would probably wire the size input to a case structure and only cast if the size=9. 😄

(Also note that unflatten also has an output for the remaining string that could be checked for length.)

[crossrulz]

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@altenbach wrote:

(Also note that unflatten also has an output for the remaining string that could be checked for length.)

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I have also used it to "chain" conversions.