How do I print a short as an unsigned short in Java

Question

I have an array of short whose values range between 0 and the maximum value of a short. I scale the data (to display it as TYPE_USHORT) so that the resulting short values range between 0 and 65535. I need to print some of the scaled values but can't figure out how. The data are in an array and in a BufferedImage.

Haga

Answer 1

The simplest way is to convert to int:

short s = ...;
int i = s & 0xffff;

The bitmask is to make the conversion give a value in the range 0-65535 rather than -32768-32767.

Lagos

Quite effective, but less readable than Short.toUnsignedInt(). – Paneling

@scottb: True - that only became available about four years after the answer was written though :) – Lagos

Answer 2

Since Java 1.8, the same can be done with Short.toUnsignedInt:

System.out.println("signed s=" + s + ", unsigned s=" + Short.toUnsignedInt(s))

Sidekick

What a difference time makes. – Haga