Print a short in binary format in Java

Question

Is there any builtin support for outputting a binary representation of a short in java?

There is of course, this, which recommends the use of Integer.toBinaryString(), which works. There is no comparable Short.toBinaryString(). Is anything else available?

Update: Integer.toBinaryString() doesn't quite work the way Short.toBinaryString() would work if it existed.

public static void main(String[] args) {
 System.out.println(Integer.toBinaryString(Short.MIN_VALUE));
}

produces

11111111111111111000000000000000

whereas I would like to see

1000000000000000

Of course, it's easy enough to chop off the first 16 digits, but that's kind of my point. This method ought to exist.

Answer 1

All shorts can be safely cast to integers, so the linked answer will work fine as long as you correctly convert the short value to int before making the conversion (and in doing so, we're making sure that the digits at the beginning are zeroed):

short x = 10;
System.out.println(Integer.toBinaryString(0xFFFF & x));
=> 1010
System.out.println(Integer.toBinaryString(0xFFFF & Short.MIN_VALUE));
=> 1000000000000000

To put it another way: all shorts are integers, so there's no need to define a separate method for obtaining the binary representation of a short.

• Óscar López: @SteveCohen right you are. A bit of fiddling is required, see my updated answer
• Steve Cohen: Well, with that amendment I'll call it good. There's nothing better. I wish the inventors of java hadn't been so quick to dismiss unsigneds.
• Óscar López: @SteveCohen agreed, they did it to simplify the language, but unsigned values are useful enough and they should have been a part of the language
• Steve Cohen: heh, just try interoperating with legacy C. :-) Welcome to my world.