left shifting of a two's complement vector VHD

I'm trying to solve some exercises, I have to shift a 8-bit vector named A into 2A (A+A).

my soluction for this is: (A(7) and '1') & A(6 downto 0) & '0';

after this I made a two's complement of A in this way:

entity complementare is
    port(a: in std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
         b: out std_logic_vector(7 downto 0));
end complementare;

architecture C of complementare is
    signal mask, temp: std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
    component ripplecarry8bit is
        port(a,b: std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
             cin: in std_logic;
             cout: out std_logic;
             s: out std_logic_vector(7 downto 0));
    end component;
begin
    mask<="11111111";
    temp<=a nand mask;
    rc: ripplecarry8bit port map(temp, "00000001", '0', cout, b);
end C; 
--if you need I post ripplecarry code but consider it as a generic adder

To get -2A (-A-A) I was thinking to do this:

signal compA: std_logic_vector(7 downto 0);
compA: complementar port map(A, compA);

--shifting
(compA(7) and '1') & compA(6 downto 0) & '0'; -- -A

Now, my main doubt is about -A, after using complementar and after getting compA, I have to extend 8-bit vector into 9-bit vector (cause my output has to be 9-bit vector), I was thinking to do this but I have doubts:

'1' & compA; --or should I just append compA to a '0' value?

Simple signed arithmetics solutions for your problem :

For a signal A which is an std_logic_vector of a size C_SIZEOF_A

signal A : std_logic_vector(C_SIZEOF_A-1 downto 0);

To get a signal equal to -A (same size):

Complement the signal value and add one to this result:

signal minus_A : std_logic_vector(C_SIZEOF_A-1 downto 0);

minus_A <= (not A) + 1; -- Warning here !!!

Warning: The '+' operator is not defined for std_logic_vector. You do the addition with the solution you prefer. I intentionaly don't want to give a solution here because the simplest one is to use signed signals but you said you can't.

To multiply a signal by 2 (signed or unsigned)

Add a null bit as LSB:

signal 2A : std_logic_vector(C_SIZEOF_A downto 0);

2A <= A & '0';

To extend a signal for 1 bit (signed) :

The MSB is the sign bit. Extend only this bit:

signal A_extended : std_logic_vector(C_SIZEOF_A downto 0);

A_extended <= A(C_SIZEOF_A-1) & A;

To extend a signal for 1 bit (unsigned) :

No sign bit here, simply add a '0':

signal A_extended : std_logic_vector(C_SIZEOF_A downto 0);

A_extended <= '0' & A;