A while back I had to deal with a bit-packed format that contained a list of integer values encoded in one of a pre-defined sets of bit widths, where both the allowed bit widths and the signed-ness were denoted in a header elsewhere. These values never got particularly long (the largest bit width I needed…

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The post discusses dealing with bit-packed formats containing integers of varying bit widths and signedness. It highlights the awkwardness of traditional sign-extension techniques using bit-shifting and offers alternative methods that do not rely on this approach. The alternative leverages the inherent properties of two's complement representation to simplify the code and make it independent of specific integer widths.

Zero or sign extend