Examples

   1.$ A[0,32] = %X2B
     $ SHOW SYMBOL A
       A = "+..."
     $ X = F$CVSI(0,4,A)
     $ SHOW SYMBOL X
       X = -5   Hex = FFFFFFFB  Octal = 37777777773

     This example uses an arithmetic overlay to assign the
     hexadecimal value 2B to all 32 bits of the symbol A. For more
     information on arithmetic overlays, see the description of the
     assignment statement (=).

     The symbol A has a string value after the overlay because it
     was previously undefined. (If a symbol is undefined, it has a
     string value as a result of an arithmetic overlay. If a symbol
     was previously defined, it retains the same data type after
     the overlay.) The hexadecimal value 2B corresponds to the ASCII
     value of the plus sign (+).

     Next, the F$CVSI function extracts the low-order 4 bits
     from the symbol A; the low-order 4 bits contain the binary
     representation of the hexadecimal value B. These bits are
     converted, as a signed value, to an integer. The converted
     value, -5, is assigned to the symbol X.

   2.$ SYM[0,32] = %X2A
     $ SHOW SYMBOL SYM
       SYM = "*..."
     $ Y = F$CVSI(0,33,SYM)
     %DCL-W-INVRANGE, field specification is out of bounds -
        check sign and size
     $ SHOW SYMBOL Y
     %DCL-W-UNDSYM, undefined symbol - check spelling

     In this example, the width argument specified with the F$CVSI
     function is too large. Therefore, DCL issues an error message
     and the symbol Y is not assigned a value.