converting a wire value to an integer in verilog

Question

I want to convert the data in a wire to an integer. For example:

wire [2:0] w = 3'b101;

I want a method that converts this to '5' and stores it in an integer. How can I do that in a better way than this:

j=1;
for(i=0; i<=2; i=i+1)
begin
  a=a+(w[i]*j);   
  j=j*2;
end

Also, how do I convert it back to binary once I have the value in an integer? This seems a clumsy way. Thank you.

Answer 1

Easy! Conversion is automatic in verilog if you assign to an integer. In verilog, all the data types are just collection on bits.

integer my_int;
always @( w )
    my_int = w;