Add a library for handling short strings in a gas efficient way (#4023)

Co-authored-by: Francisco <frangio.1@gmail.com>

Author: Amxx

.changeset/violet-frogs-hide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'openzeppelin-solidity': minor
+---
+
+`ShortStrings`: Added a library for handling short strings in a gas efficient way, with fallback to storage for longer strings.

contracts/utils/README.adoc

@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ Note that, in all cases, accounts simply _declare_ their interfaces, but they ar
 
 {{Strings}}
 
+{{ShortStrings}}
+
 {{StorageSlot}}
 
 {{Multicall}}

contracts/utils/ShortStrings.sol

@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+pragma solidity ^0.8.8;
+
+import "./StorageSlot.sol";
+
+type ShortString is bytes32;
+
+/**
+ * @dev This library provides functions to convert short memory strings
+ * into a `ShortString` type that can be used as an immutable variable.
+ * Strings of arbitrary length can be optimized if they are short enough by
+ * the addition of a storage variable used as fallback.
+ *
+ * Usage example:
+ *
+ * ```solidity
+ * contract Named {
+ *     using ShortStrings for *;
+ *
+ *     ShortString private immutable _name;
+ *     string private _nameFallback;
+ *
+ *     constructor(string memory contractName) {
+ *         _name = contractName.toShortStringWithFallback(_nameFallback);
+ *     }
+ *
+ *     function name() external view returns (string memory) {
+ *         return _name.toStringWithFallback(_nameFallback);
+ *     }
+ * }
+ * ```
+ */
+library ShortStrings {
+    error StringTooLong(string str);
+
+    /**
+     * @dev Encode a string of at most 31 chars into a `ShortString`.
+     *
+     * This will trigger a `StringTooLong` error is the input string is too long.
+     */
+    function toShortString(string memory str) internal pure returns (ShortString) {
+        bytes memory bstr = bytes(str);
+        if (bstr.length > 31) {
+            revert StringTooLong(str);
+        }
+        return ShortString.wrap(bytes32(uint256(bytes32(bstr)) | bstr.length));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dev Decode a `ShortString` back to a "normal" string.
+     */
+    function toString(ShortString sstr) internal pure returns (string memory) {
+        uint256 len = length(sstr);
+        // using `new string(len)` would work locally but is not memory safe.
+        string memory str = new string(32);
+        /// @solidity memory-safe-assembly
+        assembly {
+            mstore(str, len)
+            mstore(add(str, 0x20), sstr)
+        }
+        return str;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dev Return the length of a `ShortString`.
+     */
+    function length(ShortString sstr) internal pure returns (uint256) {
+        return uint256(ShortString.unwrap(sstr)) & 0xFF;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dev Encode a string into a `ShortString`, or write it to storage if it is too long.
+     */
+    function toShortStringWithFallback(string memory value, string storage store) internal returns (ShortString) {
+        if (bytes(value).length < 32) {
+            return toShortString(value);
+        } else {
+            StorageSlot.getStringSlot(store).value = value;
+            return ShortString.wrap(0);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dev Decode a string that was encoded to `ShortString` or written to storage using {setWithFallback}.
+     */
+    function toStringWithFallback(ShortString value, string storage store) internal pure returns (string memory) {
+        if (length(value) > 0) {
+            return toString(value);
+        } else {
+            return store;
+        }
+    }
+}

package-lock.json

@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
     "glob": "^8.0.3",
     "graphlib": "^2.1.8",
     "hardhat": "^2.9.1",
-    "hardhat-exposed": "^0.3.0",
+    "hardhat-exposed": "^0.3.1",
     "hardhat-gas-reporter": "^1.0.4",
     "hardhat-ignore-warnings": "^0.2.0",
     "keccak256": "^1.0.2",

package.json

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+const { expect } = require('chai');
+const { expectRevertCustomError } = require('../helpers/customError');
+
+const ShortStrings = artifacts.require('$ShortStrings');
+
+function decode(sstr) {
+  const length = parseInt(sstr.slice(64), 16);
+  return web3.utils.toUtf8(sstr).slice(0, length);
+}
+
+contract('ShortStrings', function () {
+  before(async function () {
+    this.mock = await ShortStrings.new();
+  });
+
+  for (const str of [0, 1, 16, 31, 32, 64, 1024].map(length => 'a'.repeat(length))) {
+    describe(`with string length ${str.length}`, function () {
+      it('encode / decode', async function () {
+        if (str.length < 32) {
+          const encoded = await this.mock.$toShortString(str);
+          expect(decode(encoded)).to.be.equal(str);
+
+          const length = await this.mock.$length(encoded);
+          expect(length.toNumber()).to.be.equal(str.length);
+
+          const decoded = await this.mock.$toString(encoded);
+          expect(decoded).to.be.equal(str);
+        } else {
+          await expectRevertCustomError(this.mock.$toShortString(str), `StringTooLong("${str}")`);
+        }
+      });
+
+      it('set / get with fallback', async function () {
+        const { logs } = await this.mock.$toShortStringWithFallback(str, 0);
+        const { ret0 } = logs.find(({ event }) => event == 'return$toShortStringWithFallback').args;
+
+        expect(await this.mock.$toString(ret0)).to.be.equal(str.length < 32 ? str : '');
+
+        const recovered = await this.mock.$toStringWithFallback(ret0, 0);
+        expect(recovered).to.be.equal(str);
+      });
+    });
+  }
+});