byte_vector for C++

byte_vector is a family of C++ types and functions to provide next functionality:

• serialization to sequence of bytes
• deserialization from sequence of bytes
• print array of bytes in hex to any std::ostream like cout, cerr or stringstream

byte_vector is a struct extended from std::vector<uint8_t>.
It provides ability to serialize and deserialize C++ basic types and classes by using family of template operators byte_vector<< and byte_range>>.

Example of operation

Lets consider example program byte_vector-demo.cpp

#include "byte_vector.hh"

using namespace std;
using namespace std::literals;

struct X{
   int a=1111111;
   short b =2;
   string c = "asd";
   
   friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&os, X const& x){
      return os<<x.a<<" "<<x.b<<" "<<x.c;
   }
   friend byte_vector& operator<<(byte_vector&bv, X const& x){
      return bv<<tuple(x.a,x.b,x.c); 
      //OR return bv<<x.a<<x.b<<x.c;
   }
   friend byte_range& operator>>(byte_range&br, X&x){
      return br>>tie(x.a,x.b,x.c);
      //OR return br>>x.a>>x.b>>x.c;
   }
};

int main()
{
   {
   byte_vector bv;
   bv<<1312314151617;
   cout<<byte_range_ascii{bv}<<endl;             /// 0x000: 00 00 01 31 8C 04 D2 C1  |...1....|
   cout<<byte_range_ascii{bv<<short(32)}<<endl;  /// 0x000: 00 00 01 31 8C 04 D2 C1 00 20  |...1..... |
   bv<< "Hello"s << " world"sv << '!' ;
   cout<<byte_range_ascii{bv}<<endl;             /// 0x000: 00 00 01 31 8C 04 D2 C1 00 20 00 05 48 65 6C 6C  |...1..... ..Hell|
   }                                             /// 0x010: 6F 00 06 20 77 6F 72 6C 64 21                    |o.. world!|
   cerr<<"----------------"<<endl;               /// ----------------
   {
   /// Serialize custom struct
   byte_vector bv; //bv={};
   bv<<X{2344567,-1,"hello"};
   cout<<byte_range_ascii(bv)<<endl;             /// 0x000: 00 23 C6 77 FF FF 00 05 68 65 6C 6C 6F  |.#.w....hello|
   byte_range br(bv);
   /// Deserialize custom struct
   X x;
   br>>x;
   (br.size()? cout<<byte_range_ascii(br) : cout<<"<empty>")<<endl;  /// <empty>
   cout<<x<<endl;                                /// 2344567 -1 hello
   }
}

This is an output from ./byte_vector-demo

0x000: 00 00 01 31 8C 04 D2 C1  |...1....|
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 8 byte int
0x000: 00 00 01 31 8C 04 D2 C1 00 20  |...1..... |
                              ^^^^^ 2 byte short
0x000: 00 00 01 31 8C 04 D2 C1 00 20 00 05 48 65 6C 6C  |...1..... ..Hell|
0x010: 6F 00 06 20 77 6F 72 6C 64 21                    |o.. world!|
                                     ^^^^^ string length 2byte value 5
          ^^^^^ string_view lenght 2byte value 6
----------------
0x000: 00 23 C6 77 FF FF 00 05 68 65 6C 6C 6F  |.#.w....hello|
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ custom struct of int,short,string
       ^^^^^^^^^^^ int
                   ^^^^^ short value -1
                         ^^^^^ string length 5
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ string data of 5 bytes
<empty>
^^^^^^^ after deserialization
2344567 -1 hello
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ deserialized struct in text format

Build and run it with:

cmake -Bbuild  &&  cmake --build build  &&  ./build/byte_vector-demo 

Integrate to user project

1. The most straightforward way is to include this project's directory.

I suggest to use git subrepo instead of git subtree and git submodule.

git subrepo clone git@gitlab.com:kyb/byte_vector.git byte_vector

Then add byte_vector project directory to includes.

2. Using the only header file – may be the most convenient way

Download amalgama header from the project's releases page

cd your/project/include_dir
curl -fsSL https://gitlab.com/kyb/byte_vector/raw/artifacts/master/$(curl https://gitlab.com/kyb/byte_vector/raw/artifacts/master/byte_vector.hh -fsSL) -o byte_vector.hh

3. Using CMake target_link_libraries with interface library

Assuming the repo has been already cloned as sugested in (1)
Since byte_vector this is header-only library there is no need to link with it. But CMake has feature INTERFACE LIBRARIES. byte_vector provides two interface libraries: byte_vector and byte_vector_amalgama. Linking against them addes include directory to the target.

1. byte_vector

   target_link_libraries(your_executable PRIVATE byte_vector)
   

   #include "byte_vector.hpp"
   #include "byte_range.hpp"
   #include "byte_range_ascii.hpp"
   #include "byte_range_hex.hpp"
   

2. byte_vector_amalgama

   target_link_libraries(your_executable PRIVATE byte_vector_amalgama)
   

   #include "byte_vector.hh"