VHDL: Is there a convenient way to assign ascii values to std_logic_vector?

Question

• In verilog, I can assign a string to a vector like:

  wire [39:0] hello;
  assign hello = \"hello\"; 
  

• In VHDL, I\'m having diffic

Answer 1

This one varies little for Morten's answer - it only uses one multiply, it copies the string instead of creating an alias, it uses an additional variable and it returns a standard logic vector with an ascending index range.

From a package called string_utils:

library ieee; 
use ieee.numeric_std.all;
-- ...
    function to_slv(s: string) return std_logic_vector is 
        constant ss: string(1 to s'length) := s; 
        variable answer: std_logic_vector(1 to 8 * s'length); 
        variable p: integer; 
        variable c: integer; 
    begin 
        for i in ss'range loop
            p := 8 * i;
            c := character'pos(ss(i));
            answer(p - 7 to p) := std_logic_vector(to_unsigned(c,8)); 
        end loop; 
        return answer; 
    end function; 

You could add an argument with a default specifying ascending/descending index range for the return value. You'd only need to provided the argument for the non default.