Can you write this better?

I need to write a lot of Long values to a file fast.
If I use Write, a Long value will use 8 characters in the
file. I have prepared a module to convert a Long value
to a 3 character string for writing to a file (and convert it back again).
Is this ok? It works fine but is there a better, less messy way?
Also I don't want to use binary mode as it is painfully slow.

Code:

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Public Function ThreeByteStringFromLong(lngNumber As Long) As String
 ThreeByteStringFromLong = Chr(R(lngNumber)) + Chr(G(lngNumber)) + Chr(B(lngNumber))
End Function

Public Function LongFromThreeByteString(str3Byte As String) As Long
 Dim strA As String
 Dim strB As String
 Dim strC As String
 strA = Left(str3Byte, 1)
 strB = Mid(str3Byte, 2, 1)
 strC = Right(str3Byte, 1)
 LongFromThreeByteString = RGB(Val(strA), Val(strB), Val(strC))
End Function

Private Function R(lColor As Long) As Byte
 R = lColor And &HFF&
End Function

Private Function G(lColor As Long) As Byte
 G = Int(lColor / &H100&) And &HFF&
End Function

Private Function B(lColor As Long) As Byte
 B = Int(lColor / &H10000) And &HFF&
End Function

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Binary? Slow? Maybe I'm getting confused now.

Quote:

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Binary? Slow? Maybe I'm getting confused now.

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Well, when you use binary mode for file access, you are processing the file byte by byte right? Whereas if you can use, say Line Input, that is a heck of a lot faster.
I did something else like this once before to test the theory, and while I was able to make the file 8 times smaller using binary mode, it also took 8 times longer to process the data.

To me, binary mode is only good if you need to manipulate a few bytes of a file and you know exactly where they are in the file. :rolleyes: