VHDL: Is there a convenient way to assign ascii values to std_logic_vector?
Solution 1
A small general function is one way to do it, with a suggestion below:
library ieee;
use ieee.numeric_std.all;
...
-- String to std_logic_vector convert in 8-bit format using character'pos(c)
--
-- Argument(s):
-- - str: String to convert
--
-- Result: std_logic_vector(8 * str'length - 1 downto 0) with left-most
-- character at MSBs.
function to_slv(str : string) return std_logic_vector is
alias str_norm : string(str'length downto 1) is str;
variable res_v : std_logic_vector(8 * str'length - 1 downto 0);
begin
for idx in str_norm'range loop
res_v(8 * idx - 1 downto 8 * idx - 8) :=
std_logic_vector(to_unsigned(character'pos(str_norm(idx)), 8));
end loop;
return res_v;
end function;
Solution 2
To return an ascii value of a character, use this code:
some_variable <= character'pos('a'); --returns the 'a' ascii value
Solution 3
In your example you are trying to assign a string type to a std_logic_vector type. That is simply not allowed. VHDL is strongly typed.
SIGNAL hello : OUT std_logic_vector (39 DOWNTO 0); ... hello <= "hello";
If your goal is to convert from hexa to ascii for printing simulation result you can simply do that:
character'val(to_integer(unsigned(my_std_logic_vector)))
Comments
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N8TRO almost 2 years
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In verilog, I can assign a string to a vector like:
wire [39:0] hello; assign hello = "hello";
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In VHDL, I'm having difficulty finding a method like this:
SIGNAL hello : OUT std_logic_vector (39 DOWNTO 0); ... hello <= "hello";
I've been using:
hello <= X"65_68_6c_6c_6f";
which is unclear and time consuming for large strings.
I've looked at the
textio
package and thetxt_util
package, but neither seem to be very clear on how to interpret a string and convert it to std_logic.Is there a simple method of assigning ascii codes to std_logic in VHDL?
Here's a minimal example:
LIBRARY ieee; USE ieee.std_logic_1164.ALL; ENTITY test IS PORT( ctrl : IN std_logic; stdout : OUT std_logic_vector (39 DOWNTO 0) ); END ENTITY; ARCHITECTURE rtl OF test IS SIGNAL temp : std_logic_vector (39 DOWNTO 0); BEGIN stdout <= temp; PROCESS(ctrl) BEGIN IF (ctrl = '0') THEN temp <= "hello"; -- X"68_65_6C_6C_6F"; ELSE temp <= "world"; END IF; END PROCESS; END rtl;
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