Bit-Stream Casting for Unpacked Array to Packed Array Conversion

SystemVerilog
,
1

I am trying following Code ::


int x[] = '{13,41,89,31,2,67,2} ;
 int x2[$] = '{13,41,89,31,2,67,2} ;
 bit [159:0] pack ;
 bit [223:0] pack1 ;

 string s = {"A","B","a","b","0","1"} ;
 bit [47:0] b ;
 
 int assoc[string] ;
 bit [255:0] bassoc ;
 

 // For Application
 int min ;
 int q[$];
 int y[$];

 initial begin
    
   min = int'(x.min()) ;  // [A] min() returns a Single Element i.e 32-bits . Hence int'() Cast Works !!
   $display("%0d",min);
   
   //pack = int'(x) ;  // Illegal :: "Fatal: Bit stream casting is only allowed on same size data." i.e we see run-time Error since we have Dynamic Error !!
   //pack = 160'(x) ;  // Illegal :: "Fatal: Bit stream casting is only allowed on same size data." i.e we see run-time Error since we have Dynamic Error !!
     
    pack1 = 224'(x) ;  // [B] Works since Same Size !!
  
  for ( int i = 223 ; i >=0 ; i = i - 32 )
   $display("%0d",pack1[i-:32]);
    
     pack1 = 224'(x2);  // Works since Same Size !!
  
  for ( int i = 223 ; i >=0 ; i = i - 32 )
   $display("%0d",pack1[i-:32]);
  
     
   $display("===============STRING=================");
     b = 48'(s);  // Works since Same Size !!
  
  for ( int i = 47 ; i >= 0 ; i -= 8 )
   $display("%0s i.e %0d",b[i-:8],b[i-:8]);  

   $display("===============ASSOC=================");
     
   foreach(s[i]) // Would Iterate 8-times !!
    begin
      assoc[s[i]] = $urandom ;   // [E] :: Throws Compilation error !!
      // assoc[$sformatf("%0s",i)] = $urandom ;  // [F] :: Can it be a substitute for [A] ??
   end  
  
   bassoc = 256'(assoc);  // [I]  Would it work ??
  
  for ( int i = 255 ; i >= 0 ; i -= 32 )
   $display("bassoc[%0s] is %0d",bassoc[i-:32],bassoc[i-:32]);  
  
  
 end

LRM 6.24.3 ::


               When a dynamic array, queue, or string type is converted to the packed representation, the item at index 0 occupies the MSBs.
               When an associative array is converted to the packed representation, items are packed in index-sorted order with the first indexed 
               element occupying the MSBs

The Code works fine upto String Data types .

[1] Question regarding [E] and [F] ::

For associative array however I see error at [E] , not sure why >

Also I tried using [F] as a substitute for [E] , but even that doesn’t work .

[2] Is the bit-stream cast Statement [I] a correct statement ? Since associative array would have 8-indexes and 32x8 equals 256 , it should work right ?