Bit mask applied to character?

[miked2]

I have the following JavaScript code:

 

// mask = 0xFF or bin "11111111" or dec 255.

var strChar = str.charCodeAt(i);

var maskedChar = strChar & mask;

 

I need to translate that into PHP:

 

$strChar = $str[$i];

$maskedChar = $strChar & mask;

 

The second line of PHP doesn't work - it always returns a binary 0.

 

How do you do a bit mask of a character in PHP?  According to something I found in the PHP bug reporting site (bugs.php.net), you can't do this period - someone decided that it doesn't make sense to perform bitwise operations on strings.  Is this still true?  Is there a work-around?  Clearly, there's a use for bitwise operations on characters, since that JavaScript code is widely used for encryption/decryption of passwords etc.

 

PS - the character can be either single or double byte and the mask removes the high byte.

[DarkWater]

You need to use ord() to get the ASCII equivalent of the character.

[miked2]

Great - that did it!

 

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[DarkWater]

No problem. =)  Please mark this topic as solved.