converting a number in base b to a number in base 10 using ^^ in Mathematica
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: converting a number in base b to a number in base 10 using ^^ in Mathematica
- From: gaylord at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
- Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 04:44:33 -0600
on p. 537 of the second edition of the bible it says that
to go from a number 'mmm' in base b to a number in base 10 use
b^^mmm
eg.,
2^^101
5
writing a program to do this,
base2tobase10conversion[n_Integer] := 2^^n
however, when this is entered into the global rule base, i got
base2tobase10conversion[n_Integer] := 2^^n
General::digit:
Digit at position 1 in n
is too large to be used in
base 2.
hoping it was one of those messages that don't mean much, i tried to run
the program
base2tobase10conversion[101]
$Failed
what's going on apparently is that M wants the quantity to the right of ^^
to be an integer. i tried to use Hold to avoid the problem but it doesn't
help.
i then tried :
101
101
2^^%
Syntax::sntxf:
"2^" cannot be followed by "^%"
it seems that the ^^ operator absolutely insists on being immediately
followed by an integer.
can someone suggest another way (there must be; there's always another way
to do almost everything in M) to convert a number in base b to base 10
other than using ^^.
i find it hard to believe that M does not have a built-in function for
doing this but i can't find it in the book.