Name: binaryEncode

Type: function

Syntax: binaryEncode(<formatsList>, <dataStringList>)

Summary:

<encode|Encodes> a set of <value|values> into a single <binaryvalue>.

Introduced: 1.0

OS: mac, windows, linux, ios, android

Platforms: desktop, server, mobile

Example:

binaryEncode("a","Q") -- returns "Q"

Example:

binaryEncode("A5","QED") -- returns "QED "

Example:

binaryEncode("N2a12x",firstNum,secondNum,labelString,"nothing")

Example:

charToNum(binaryEncode("B*","01111111")) -- returns 127

Parameters:

formatsList:

The formatsList consists of one or more dataTypes, each followed

optionally by an amount. A dataType is one of the following single

letters: x: output amount null characters

dataStringList (string):

A comma-separated list of dataStrings. Each dataString is a string, or

an expression that evaluates to a string.

amount (enum):

- If the dataType is a, A, b, B, h, or H, the amount specifies the

number of characters or groups of the dataString to use; extra

characters are ignored. The * character Encodes the rest of the data

in the current dataString. If no amount is specified, the dataType is

used for one character.

- If the dataType is c, C, s, S, i, I, n, N, m, M, f, or d, the amount

specifies the number of dataStrings to encode. The * character

Encodes the rest of the dataStrings. If no amount is specified, the

dataType is used for one dataString.

- If the dataType is x, the amount specifies how many nulls to place in

the returned value.

- byte integersC: encode amount numbers as unsigned 1-byte integerss:

encode amount numbers as signed 2-byte integers in host byte orderS:

encode amount numbers as unsigned 2-byte integers in host byte

orderi: encode amount numbers as signed 4-byte integers in host byte

orderI: encode amount numbers as unsigned 4-byte integers in host

byte ordern: encode amount numbers as signed 2-byte integers in

network byte orderN: encode amount numbers as signed 4-byte integers

in network byte orderm: encode amount numbers as unsigned 2-byte

integers in network byte orderM: encode amount numbers as unsigned

4-byte integers in network byte orderf: encode amount numbers as

single-precision floating-point numbersd: encode amount numbers as

double-precision floating-point numbersThe amount corresponding to

each dataType is an integer or the * character:

Returns:

The <binaryEncode> <function> <return|returns> the binary string

representation of the dataStrings.

The result:

Although the x dataType places <null|nulls> in the resulting <string>

regardless of the contents of its corresponding dataString, you still

must provide a dataString for instances of x that appear in the

<formatsList>. The <binaryEncode> <function> disregards the contents of

the dataString used for the dataType x, so you can use any value.

Description:

Use the <binaryEncode> function to <encode> one or more <value|values>

as <binary file|binary data>.

The binary data format produced by <binaryEncode> is similar to the

<format> produced by the "pack()" function of the Perl programming

language.

If you don't specify a number with the a, A, b, B, h, or H dataTypes,

one <character> is <encode|encoded>. If the dataType normally takes more

than one <character>, trailing zeroes are added to make up the required

number of <characters>. For example, H requires two characters, so

binaryEncode("H","3") <encode|Encodes> the <hexadecimal> number 30,

adding a zero to the end to make the dataString two <characters> long.

References: function (control structure), numToChar (function),

format (function), return (glossary), binary file (glossary),

value (glossary), null (glossary), encode (glossary),

binaryvalue (glossary), hexadecimal (glossary), string (keyword),

character (keyword), characters (keyword)

Tags: text processing