Before I start, I just want to give a shout out to dsmith and Joe Armstrong (at his book’s discussion forum) for all of the help in getting this module to work correctly. The Erlang community is very helpful and kind to beginners!

So at this point I have both a proper table generation function as well as a function to calculate the CRC16 CCITT checksum for a list of integers. To generate a table, you can call the maketable/0 function and it will return a list with the entire LUT. To calculate the checksum on a list of integers, call ccitt/1 and pass the list as the parameter. At this time the module has a static look-up table (LUT) that is used by the ccitt function for simplicity in using the module. The LUT generation was really just an exercise for me to learn Erlang. Here is the latest version of the code:

%

%

% CRC16 CCITT implementation based on a lookup table

%

%

% -module(crc16).

-export([maketable/0]).

-export([ccitt/1]). % ITU CRC16 CCITT Normalized Polynomial

-define(POLYNOMIAL, 16#1021). % for left-shifts % ITU CRC16 CCITT Initial Value

-define(INITIAL_VALUE, 16#FFFF). % ITU CRC16 CCITT Look-up Table (LUT) based on left-shifts

-define(CRC16LUT,

[ 16#0000, 16#1021, 16#2042, 16#3063, 16#4084, 16#50a5, 16#60c6, 16#70e7,

16#8108, 16#9129, 16#a14a, 16#b16b, 16#c18c, 16#d1ad, 16#e1ce, 16#f1ef,

16#1231, 16#0210, 16#3273, 16#2252, 16#52b5, 16#4294, 16#72f7, 16#62d6,

16#9339, 16#8318, 16#b37b, 16#a35a, 16#d3bd, 16#c39c, 16#f3ff, 16#e3de,

16#2462, 16#3443, 16#0420, 16#1401, 16#64e6, 16#74c7, 16#44a4, 16#5485,

16#a56a, 16#b54b, 16#8528, 16#9509, 16#e5ee, 16#f5cf, 16#c5ac, 16#d58d,

16#3653, 16#2672, 16#1611, 16#0630, 16#76d7, 16#66f6, 16#5695, 16#46b4,

16#b75b, 16#a77a, 16#9719, 16#8738, 16#f7df, 16#e7fe, 16#d79d, 16#c7bc,

16#48c4, 16#58e5, 16#6886, 16#78a7, 16#0840, 16#1861, 16#2802, 16#3823,

16#c9cc, 16#d9ed, 16#e98e, 16#f9af, 16#8948, 16#9969, 16#a90a, 16#b92b,

16#5af5, 16#4ad4, 16#7ab7, 16#6a96, 16#1a71, 16#0a50, 16#3a33, 16#2a12,

16#dbfd, 16#cbdc, 16#fbbf, 16#eb9e, 16#9b79, 16#8b58, 16#bb3b, 16#ab1a,

16#6ca6, 16#7c87, 16#4ce4, 16#5cc5, 16#2c22, 16#3c03, 16#0c60, 16#1c41,

16#edae, 16#fd8f, 16#cdec, 16#ddcd, 16#ad2a, 16#bd0b, 16#8d68, 16#9d49,

16#7e97, 16#6eb6, 16#5ed5, 16#4ef4, 16#3e13, 16#2e32, 16#1e51, 16#0e70,

16#ff9f, 16#efbe, 16#dfdd, 16#cffc, 16#bf1b, 16#af3a, 16#9f59, 16#8f78,

16#9188, 16#81a9, 16#b1ca, 16#a1eb, 16#d10c, 16#c12d, 16#f14e, 16#e16f,

16#1080, 16#00a1, 16#30c2, 16#20e3, 16#5004, 16#4025, 16#7046, 16#6067,

16#83b9, 16#9398, 16#a3fb, 16#b3da, 16#c33d, 16#d31c, 16#e37f, 16#f35e,

16#02b1, 16#1290, 16#22f3, 16#32d2, 16#4235, 16#5214, 16#6277, 16#7256,

16#b5ea, 16#a5cb, 16#95a8, 16#8589, 16#f56e, 16#e54f, 16#d52c, 16#c50d,

16#34e2, 16#24c3, 16#14a0, 16#0481, 16#7466, 16#6447, 16#5424, 16#4405,

16#a7db, 16#b7fa, 16#8799, 16#97b8, 16#e75f, 16#f77e, 16#c71d, 16#d73c,

16#26d3, 16#36f2, 16#0691, 16#16b0, 16#6657, 16#7676, 16#4615, 16#5634,

16#d94c, 16#c96d, 16#f90e, 16#e92f, 16#99c8, 16#89e9, 16#b98a, 16#a9ab,

16#5844, 16#4865, 16#7806, 16#6827, 16#18c0, 16#08e1, 16#3882, 16#28a3,

16#cb7d, 16#db5c, 16#eb3f, 16#fb1e, 16#8bf9, 16#9bd8, 16#abbb, 16#bb9a,

16#4a75, 16#5a54, 16#6a37, 16#7a16, 16#0af1, 16#1ad0, 16#2ab3, 16#3a92,

16#fd2e, 16#ed0f, 16#dd6c, 16#cd4d, 16#bdaa, 16#ad8b, 16#9de8, 16#8dc9,

16#7c26, 16#6c07, 16#5c64, 16#4c45, 16#3ca2, 16#2c83, 16#1ce0, 16#0cc1,

16#ef1f, 16#ff3e, 16#cf5d, 16#df7c, 16#af9b, 16#bfba, 16#8fd9, 16#9ff8,

16#6e17, 16#7e36, 16#4e55, 16#5e74, 16#2e93, 16#3eb2, 16#0ed1, 16#1ef0 ]). %

% exported functions

%

maketable() -> outer_loop(0,255, fun tablevalue/1).

ccitt(Data) -> crc16(Data, ?INITIAL_VALUE). %

% internal functions

%

inner_loop(0, X, _) -> X;

inner_loop(N, X, F) -> inner_loop(N-1, F(X), F). outer_loop(Max, Max, F) -> [F(Max)];

outer_loop(I, Max, F) -> [F(I)|outer_loop(I+1, Max, F)]. calculate(X) when X =< 255 ->

Reg = X bsl 8,

inner_loop(8, Reg, fun(Y) ->

if Y band 16#8000 /= 16#0000 -> ?POLYNOMIAL bxor (Y bsl 1);

Y band 16#8000 == 16#0000 -> Y bsl 1

end

end). tablevalue(X) ->

calculate(X) band 16#FFFF. crc16([], Acc) -> Acc;

crc16([Byte|TheRest], Acc) when Byte =< 16#FF ->

TableIndex = (Acc bsr 8 ) bxor Byte,

UpdatedAcc = ((Acc bsl 8 ) bxor lists:nth(TableIndex+1, ?CRC16LUT)) band 16#FFFF,

crc16(TheRest, UpdatedAcc).

I pleased with the results thus far; the output matches that of my C++ code. I also feel much more confident with Erlang now and I think I’m ready to get to work with concurrency. To summarize what I have learned from wrirting this module:

a better understanding of recursive function design

looping in Erlang, especially looping with accumulation

how to control overflow in binary arithmetic

a better understanding of functions and funs

I suspect this module will still evolve along the way. For further investigation:

error and exception handling for invalid input

switching from a list look-up to an array look-up to improve performace [dsmith pointed out to me that Erlang list look-ups are O(n)]

controlling the display of output on the screen — I’d like to be able to display hex, if possible 🙂