Do I need to pack/unpack data read from a binary file before performing bitwise operations?

I've read two bytes from a binary file into $data and now need to perform a bitwise and.

But when I do

if (($data & "\x100") != 0) {

I get the error Argument "@\0" isn'开发者_StackOverflow社区t numeric in numeric ne (!=)

Am I supposed to convert $data first?

Why are you using strings for binary operations?

Use ($data & 0x100) != 0 and, if necessary, convert $data to a number.

Yes, if you have two literal bytes which should be interpreted as a 16-bit number, you need to unpack it.

On top of that, what ThiefMaster said.