short int convertIn (const char *number, char baseIn) {

  /*find length of number*/
  stringl = 0;
  total = 0;
  for (i=0; number[i] != '\0'; i++){
    stringl++;
  }

  /* set the base */
  if (baseIn == 'd'){
    base = 10;
  }
  if (baseIn == 'o'){
    base = 8;
  }
  if (baseIn == 'x'){
    base = 16;
  }
  if (baseIn == 'b'){
    base = 2;
  }

  for (i=0; number[i] != '\0'; i++){

    if (number[i] == '-'){
      continue;
    }
    if  (number[i] == '0'){
      continue;
    }

    subtotal = base;
    j = (stringl-1-i);
      while (j>1){
    if ((32767/subtotal)<base){
      printf("Input number too large to handle.");
      exit(0);
    }
    subtotal = subtotal*base;
    j--;
      }
      if (j==0){
    subtotal = 1;
      }
    if (number[i] > '@'){
      numeric = (number[i] - 55);
    }

    if (number[i] < '@'){
      numeric = (number[i] - 48);
    }

    if ((32767/subtotal)<numeric){
      printf("Input number too large to handle.");
      exit(0);
    }
    subtotal = numeric*subtotal;

    if ((32767-total)<subtotal){
      printf("Input number too large to handle.");
      exit(0);
    }
    total = total + subtotal;

  }

  if (number[0] == '-'){
    total = total*(-1);
  }
  return total;

}