toSigned abstract method Null safety

Returns the least significant width bits of this integer, extending the highest retained bit to the sign. This is the same as truncating the value to fit in width bits using an signed 2-s complement representation. The returned value has the same bit value in all positions higher than width.

                         //     V--sign bit-V
16.toSigned(5) == -16;   //  00010000 -> 11110000
239.toSigned(5) == 15;   //  11101111 -> 00001111
                         //     ^           ^

This operation can be used to simulate arithmetic from low level languages. For example, to increment an 8 bit signed quantity:

q = (q + 1).toSigned(8);

q will count from 0 up to 127, wrap to -128 and count back up to 127.

If the input value fits in width bits without truncation, the result is the same as the input. The minimum width needed to avoid truncation of x is x.bitLength + 1, i.e.

x == x.toSigned(x.bitLength + 1);