/*****************************************************************************
*                                                                            *
*   TYPE2BYTE.SPL Copyright (C) 2006 DSP Development Corporation             *
*                               All Rights Reserved                          *
*                                                                            *
*   Author:       Randy Race                                                 *
*                                                                            *
*   Synopsis:     Converts a series using a specified type to a byte stream  *
*                                                                            *
*   Revisions:    14 Dec 2006  RRR  Creation                                 *
*                                                                            *
*****************************************************************************/

#if @HELP_TYPE2BYTE

    TYPE2BYTE

    Purpose: Converts a series from a specific data type to a raw stream
             of bytes.

    Syntax:  TYPE2BYTE(series, datatype, byteswap)

                series - Input series

              datatype - An integer code number or name specifying
                         the data type. See CASTBYTE for values.
                         Defaults to DOUBLE.

              swapflag - Optional. An integer. 0:No swap. 1:Swap byte order.
                         Defaults to 0.

    Returns: A series

    Example:
             W1: grand(10, 1)
             W2: type2byte(w1)
             W3: byte2type(W2)

             W2 contains a 80 point series where every 8 values is the
             byte representation of the corresponding double value in W1.
             W3 converts the byte values of W2 to double precision and
             recovers the original data.

   Example:
             W1: grand(10, 1)
             W2: type2byte(w1, float)
             W3: byte2type(W2, float)

             Same as above except the data is converted to 4 byte floats.
             The series in W2 is 40 bytes long where every 4 values is the
             byte representation of the corresponding float value in W1.
             W3 converts the byte values of W2 to float precision and
             recovers the original data.


    Remarks:
             See BYTE2TYPE to convert a byte stream to a series of a specific
             type.

    See Also
             Byte2type
             Castbyte

#endif


/* Convert series to byte stream */
type2byte(series, datatype, swapflag)
{
        if (argc < 3)
        {
                if (argc < 2)
                {
                        if (argc < 1) error("type2byte - input series required");
                        
                        datatype = DOUBLE;
                }
                
                swapflag = 0;
        }

        /* castbyte does the trick */
        series = castbyte(series, datatype, swapflag, 2);

        return(series);
}