Decoding AudioStreamBasicDescription's mFormatFlags number (ASBD.mFormatFlags) - ios

Question

I'm writing an iOS app that uses CoreAudio's Audio Unit API, and at a certain point I do a AudioUnitGetProperty(audioUnit, kAudioUnitProperty_StreamFormat, ...) call. At that point I set a breakpoint to look into the ASBD, and I find the mFormatFlags field is 41. The question is, can I decode the actual flag names from that number (such as kAudioFormatFlagIsNonInterleaved | kAudioFormatFlagIsPacked | ...)?
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Here is an ostream overload for printing an ASBD, taken mostly from Apple sample code:
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& out, const AudioStreamBasicDescription& format)
{
unsigned char formatID [5];
*(UInt32 *)formatID = OSSwapHostToBigInt32(format.mFormatID);
formatID[4] = '\0';
// General description
out << format.mChannelsPerFrame << " ch, " << format.mSampleRate << " Hz, '" << formatID << "' (0x" << std::hex << std::setw(8) << std::setfill('0') << format.mFormatFlags << std::dec << ") ";
if(kAudioFormatLinearPCM == format.mFormatID) {
// Bit depth
UInt32 fractionalBits = ((0x3f << 7)/*kLinearPCMFormatFlagsSampleFractionMask*/ & format.mFormatFlags) >> 7/*kLinearPCMFormatFlagsSampleFractionShift*/;
if(0 < fractionalBits)
out << (format.mBitsPerChannel - fractionalBits) << "." << fractionalBits;
else
out << format.mBitsPerChannel;
out << "-bit";
// Endianness
bool isInterleaved = !(kAudioFormatFlagIsNonInterleaved & format.mFormatFlags);
UInt32 interleavedChannelCount = (isInterleaved ? format.mChannelsPerFrame : 1);
UInt32 sampleSize = (0 < format.mBytesPerFrame && 0 < interleavedChannelCount ? format.mBytesPerFrame / interleavedChannelCount : 0);
if(1 < sampleSize)
out << ((kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsBigEndian & format.mFormatFlags) ? " big-endian" : " little-endian");
// Sign
bool isInteger = !(kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsFloat & format.mFormatFlags);
if(isInteger)
out << ((kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsSignedInteger & format.mFormatFlags) ? " signed" : " unsigned");
// Integer or floating
out << (isInteger ? " integer" : " float");
// Packedness
if(0 < sampleSize && ((sampleSize << 3) != format.mBitsPerChannel))
out << ((kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsPacked & format.mFormatFlags) ? ", packed in " : ", unpacked in ") << sampleSize << " bytes";
// Alignment
if((0 < sampleSize && ((sampleSize << 3) != format.mBitsPerChannel)) || (0 != (format.mBitsPerChannel & 7)))
out << ((kLinearPCMFormatFlagIsAlignedHigh & format.mFormatFlags) ? " high-aligned" : " low-aligned");
if(!isInterleaved)
out << ", deinterleaved";
}
else if(kAudioFormatAppleLossless == format.mFormatID) {
UInt32 sourceBitDepth = 0;
switch(format.mFormatFlags) {
case kAppleLosslessFormatFlag_16BitSourceData: sourceBitDepth = 16; break;
case kAppleLosslessFormatFlag_20BitSourceData: sourceBitDepth = 20; break;
case kAppleLosslessFormatFlag_24BitSourceData: sourceBitDepth = 24; break;
case kAppleLosslessFormatFlag_32BitSourceData: sourceBitDepth = 32; break;
}
if(0 != sourceBitDepth)
out << "from " << sourceBitDepth << "-bit source, ";
else
out << "from UNKNOWN source bit depth, ";
out << format.mFramesPerPacket << " frames/packet";
}
else
out << format.mBitsPerChannel << " bits/channel, " << format.mBytesPerPacket << " bytes/packet, " << format.mFramesPerPacket << " frames/packet, " << format.mBytesPerFrame << " bytes/frame";
return out;
}