binary

package binary

import "encoding/binary"

Package binary implements simple translation between numbers and byte sequences and encoding and decoding of varints.

Numbers are translated by reading and writing fixed-size values. A fixed-size value is either a fixed-size arithmetic type (bool, int8, uint8, int16, float32, complex64, ...) or an array or struct containing only fixed-size values.

The varint functions encode and decode single integer values using a variable-length encoding; smaller values require fewer bytes. For a specification, see https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding.

This package favors simplicity over efficiency. Clients that require high-performance serialization, especially for large data structures, should look at more advanced solutions such as the encoding/gob package or google.golang.org/protobuf for protocol buffers.

Index

Constants
Variables
func AppendUvarint(buf []byte, x uint64) []byte
func AppendVarint(buf []byte, x int64) []byte
func PutUvarint(buf []byte, x uint64) int
func PutVarint(buf []byte, x int64) int
func Read(r io.Reader, order ByteOrder, data any) error
func ReadUvarint(r io.ByteReader) (uint64, error)
func ReadVarint(r io.ByteReader) (int64, error)
func Size(v any) int
func Uvarint(buf []byte) (uint64, int)
func Varint(buf []byte) (int64, int)
func Write(w io.Writer, order ByteOrder, data any) error
type AppendByteOrder
type ByteOrder

Constants

const (
	MaxVarintLen16 = 3
	MaxVarintLen32 = 5
	MaxVarintLen64 = 10
)

MaxVarintLenN is the maximum length of a varint-encoded N-bit integer.

Variables

var BigEndian bigEndian

BigEndian is the big-endian implementation of ByteOrder and AppendByteOrder.

var LittleEndian littleEndian

LittleEndian is the little-endian implementation of ByteOrder and AppendByteOrder.

var NativeEndian nativeEndian

NativeEndian is the native-endian implementation of ByteOrder and AppendByteOrder.

Functions

func AppendUvarint

func AppendUvarint(buf []byte, x uint64) []byte

AppendUvarint appends the varint-encoded form of x, as generated by PutUvarint, to buf and returns the extended buffer.

func AppendVarint

func AppendVarint(buf []byte, x int64) []byte

AppendVarint appends the varint-encoded form of x, as generated by PutVarint, to buf and returns the extended buffer.

func PutUvarint

func PutUvarint(buf []byte, x uint64) int

PutUvarint encodes a uint64 into buf and returns the number of bytes written. If the buffer is too small, PutUvarint will panic.

Example

package main

import (
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	buf := make([]byte, binary.MaxVarintLen64)

	for _, x := range []uint64{1, 2, 127, 128, 255, 256} {
		n := binary.PutUvarint(buf, x)
		fmt.Printf("%x\n", buf[:n])
	}
}

Output:

func PutVarint

func PutVarint(buf []byte, x int64) int

PutVarint encodes an int64 into buf and returns the number of bytes written. If the buffer is too small, PutVarint will panic.

Example

package main

import (
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	buf := make([]byte, binary.MaxVarintLen64)

	for _, x := range []int64{-65, -64, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 63, 64} {
		n := binary.PutVarint(buf, x)
		fmt.Printf("%x\n", buf[:n])
	}
}

Output:

func Read

func Read(r io.Reader, order ByteOrder, data any) error

Read reads structured binary data from r into data. Data must be a pointer to a fixed-size value or a slice of fixed-size values. Bytes read from r are decoded using the specified byte order and written to successive fields of the data. When decoding boolean values, a zero byte is decoded as false, and any other non-zero byte is decoded as true. When reading into structs, the field data for fields with blank (_) field names is skipped; i.e., blank field names may be used for padding. When reading into a struct, all non-blank fields must be exported or Read may panic.

The error is io.EOF only if no bytes were read. If an io.EOF happens after reading some but not all the bytes, Read returns io.ErrUnexpectedEOF.

Example

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	var pi float64
	b := []byte{0x18, 0x2d, 0x44, 0x54, 0xfb, 0x21, 0x09, 0x40}
	buf := bytes.NewReader(b)
	err := binary.Read(buf, binary.LittleEndian, &pi)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("binary.Read failed:", err)
	}
	fmt.Print(pi)
}

Output:

3.141592653589793

Example (Multi)

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	b := []byte{0x18, 0x2d, 0x44, 0x54, 0xfb, 0x21, 0x09, 0x40, 0xff, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0xbe, 0xef}
	r := bytes.NewReader(b)

	var data struct {
		PI   float64
		Uate uint8
		Mine [3]byte
		Too  uint16
	}

	if err := binary.Read(r, binary.LittleEndian, &data); err != nil {
		fmt.Println("binary.Read failed:", err)
	}

	fmt.Println(data.PI)
	fmt.Println(data.Uate)
	fmt.Printf("% x\n", data.Mine)
	fmt.Println(data.Too)
}

Output:

3.141592653589793
255
01 02 03
61374

func ReadUvarint

func ReadUvarint(r io.ByteReader) (uint64, error)

ReadUvarint reads an encoded unsigned integer from r and returns it as a uint64. The error is io.EOF only if no bytes were read. If an io.EOF happens after reading some but not all the bytes, ReadUvarint returns io.ErrUnexpectedEOF.

func ReadVarint

func ReadVarint(r io.ByteReader) (int64, error)

ReadVarint reads an encoded signed integer from r and returns it as an int64. The error is io.EOF only if no bytes were read. If an io.EOF happens after reading some but not all the bytes, ReadVarint returns io.ErrUnexpectedEOF.

func Size

func Size(v any) int

Size returns how many bytes Write would generate to encode the value v, which must be a fixed-size value or a slice of fixed-size values, or a pointer to such data. If v is neither of these, Size returns -1.

func Uvarint

func Uvarint(buf []byte) (uint64, int)

Uvarint decodes a uint64 from buf and returns that value and the number of bytes read (> 0). If an error occurred, the value is 0 and the number of bytes n is <= 0 meaning:

n == 0: buf too small
n  < 0: value larger than 64 bits (overflow)
        and -n is the number of bytes read

Example

package main

import (
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	inputs := [][]byte{
		{0x01},
		{0x02},
		{0x7f},
		{0x80, 0x01},
		{0xff, 0x01},
		{0x80, 0x02},
	}
	for _, b := range inputs {
		x, n := binary.Uvarint(b)
		if n != len(b) {
			fmt.Println("Uvarint did not consume all of in")
		}
		fmt.Println(x)
	}
}

Output:

func Varint

func Varint(buf []byte) (int64, int)

Varint decodes an int64 from buf and returns that value and the number of bytes read (> 0). If an error occurred, the value is 0 and the number of bytes n is <= 0 with the following meaning:

n == 0: buf too small
n  < 0: value larger than 64 bits (overflow)
        and -n is the number of bytes read

Example

package main

import (
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	inputs := [][]byte{
		{0x81, 0x01},
		{0x7f},
		{0x03},
		{0x01},
		{0x00},
		{0x02},
		{0x04},
		{0x7e},
		{0x80, 0x01},
	}
	for _, b := range inputs {
		x, n := binary.Varint(b)
		if n != len(b) {
			fmt.Println("Varint did not consume all of in")
		}
		fmt.Println(x)
	}
}

Output:

func Write

func Write(w io.Writer, order ByteOrder, data any) error

Write writes the binary representation of data into w. Data must be a fixed-size value or a slice of fixed-size values, or a pointer to such data. Boolean values encode as one byte: 1 for true, and 0 for false. Bytes written to w are encoded using the specified byte order and read from successive fields of the data. When writing structs, zero values are written for fields with blank (_) field names.

Example

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
	"math"
)

func main() {
	buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
	var pi float64 = math.Pi
	err := binary.Write(buf, binary.LittleEndian, pi)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("binary.Write failed:", err)
	}
	fmt.Printf("% x", buf.Bytes())
}

Output:

18 2d 44 54 fb 21 09 40

Example (Multi)

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
	var data = []any{
		uint16(61374),
		int8(-54),
		uint8(254),
	}
	for _, v := range data {
		err := binary.Write(buf, binary.LittleEndian, v)
		if err != nil {
			fmt.Println("binary.Write failed:", err)
		}
	}
	fmt.Printf("%x", buf.Bytes())
}

Output:

beefcafe

Types

type AppendByteOrder

type AppendByteOrder interface {
	AppendUint16([]byte, uint16) []byte
	AppendUint32([]byte, uint32) []byte
	AppendUint64([]byte, uint64) []byte
	String() string
}

AppendByteOrder specifies how to append 16-, 32-, or 64-bit unsigned integers into a byte slice.

It is implemented by LittleEndian, BigEndian, and NativeEndian.

type ByteOrder

type ByteOrder interface {
	Uint16([]byte) uint16
	Uint32([]byte) uint32
	Uint64([]byte) uint64
	PutUint16([]byte, uint16)
	PutUint32([]byte, uint32)
	PutUint64([]byte, uint64)
	String() string
}

A ByteOrder specifies how to convert byte slices into 16-, 32-, or 64-bit unsigned integers.

It is implemented by LittleEndian, BigEndian, and NativeEndian.

Example (Get)

package main

import (
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	b := []byte{0xe8, 0x03, 0xd0, 0x07}
	x1 := binary.LittleEndian.Uint16(b[0:])
	x2 := binary.LittleEndian.Uint16(b[2:])
	fmt.Printf("%#04x %#04x\n", x1, x2)
}

Output:

0x03e8 0x07d0

Example (Put)

package main

import (
	"encoding/binary"
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	b := make([]byte, 4)
	binary.LittleEndian.PutUint16(b[0:], 0x03e8)
	binary.LittleEndian.PutUint16(b[2:], 0x07d0)
	fmt.Printf("% x\n", b)
}

Output:

e8 03 d0 07