Method: Array#pack

Defined in:

pack.c

#pack ⇒ Object

Packs the contents of arr into a binary sequence according to the directives in aTemplateString (see the table below) Directives "A," "a," and "Z" may be followed by a count, which gives the width of the resulting field. The remaining directives also may take a count, indicating the number of array elements to convert. If the count is an asterisk ("*"), all remaining array elements will be converted. Any of the directives "sSiIlL" may be followed by an underscore ("_") or exclamation mark ("!") to use the underlying platform's native size for the specified type; otherwise, they use a platform-independent size. Spaces are ignored in the template string. See also String#unpack.

a = [ "a", "b", "c" ]
n = [ 65, 66, 67 ]
a.pack("A3A3A3")   #=> "a  b  c  "
a.pack("a3a3a3")   #=> "a\000\000b\000\000c\000\000"
n.pack("ccc")      #=> "ABC"

Directives for pack.

Integer      | Array   |
Directive    | Element | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   C         | Integer | 8-bit unsigned (unsigned char)
   S         | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, native endian (uint16_t)
   L         | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, native endian (uint32_t)
   Q         | Integer | 64-bit unsigned, native endian (uint64_t)
             |         |
   c         | Integer | 8-bit signed (signed char)
   s         | Integer | 16-bit signed, native endian (int16_t)
   l         | Integer | 32-bit signed, native endian (int32_t)
   q         | Integer | 64-bit signed, native endian (int64_t)
             |         |
   S_, S!    | Integer | unsigned short, native endian
   I, I_, I! | Integer | unsigned int, native endian
   L_, L!    | Integer | unsigned long, native endian
             |         |
   s_, s!    | Integer | signed short, native endian
   i, i_, i! | Integer | signed int, native endian
   l_, l!    | Integer | signed long, native endian
             |         |
   S> L> Q>  | Integer | same as the directives without ">" except
   s> l> q>  |         | big endian
   S!> I!>   |         | (available since Ruby 1.9.3)
   L!>       |         | "S>" is same as "n"
   s!> i!>   |         | "L>" is same as "N"
   l!>       |         |
             |         |
   S< L< Q<  | Integer | same as the directives without "<" except
   s< l< q<  |         | little endian
   S!< I!<   |         | (available since Ruby 1.9.3)
   L!<       |         | "S<" is same as "v"
   s!< i!<   |         | "L<" is same as "V"
   l!<       |         |
             |         |
   n         | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, network (big-endian) byte order
   N         | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, network (big-endian) byte order
   v         | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, VAX (little-endian) byte order
   V         | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, VAX (little-endian) byte order
             |         |
   U         | Integer | UTF-8 character
   w         | Integer | BER-compressed integer

Float        |         |
Directive    |         | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   D, d      | Float   | double-precision, native format
   F, f      | Float   | single-precision, native format
   E         | Float   | double-precision, little-endian byte order
   e         | Float   | single-precision, little-endian byte order
   G         | Float   | double-precision, network (big-endian) byte order
   g         | Float   | single-precision, network (big-endian) byte order

String       |         |
Directive    |         | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   A         | String  | arbitrary binary string (space padded, count is width)
   a         | String  | arbitrary binary string (null padded, count is width)
   Z         | String  | same as ``a'', except that null is added with *
   B         | String  | bit string (MSB first)
   b         | String  | bit string (LSB first)
   H         | String  | hex string (high nibble first)
   h         | String  | hex string (low nibble first)
   u         | String  | UU-encoded string
   M         | String  | quoted printable, MIME encoding (see RFC2045)
   m         | String  | base64 encoded string (see RFC 2045, count is width)
             |         | (if count is 0, no line feed are added, see RFC 4648)
   P         | String  | pointer to a structure (fixed-length string)
   p         | String  | pointer to a null-terminated string

Misc.        |         |
Directive    |         | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   @         | ---     | moves to absolute position
   X         | ---     | back up a byte
   x         | ---     | null byte

# File 'pack.c'

static VALUE
pack_pack(VALUE ary, VALUE fmt)
{
static const char nul10[] = "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0";
static const char spc10[] = "          ";
const char *p, *pend;
VALUE res, from, associates = 0;
char type;
long items, len, idx, plen;
const char *ptr;
int enc_info = 1;       /* 0 - BINARY, 1 - US-ASCII, 2 - UTF-8 */
#ifdef NATINT_PACK
int natint;     /* native integer */
#endif
int signed_p, integer_size, bigendian_p;

StringValue(fmt);
p = RSTRING_PTR(fmt);
pend = p + RSTRING_LEN(fmt);
res = rb_str_buf_new(0);

items = RARRAY_LEN(ary);
idx = 0;

#define TOO_FEW (rb_raise(rb_eArgError, toofew), 0)
#define THISFROM (items > 0 ? RARRAY_PTR(ary)[idx] : TOO_FEW)
#define NEXTFROM (items-- > 0 ? RARRAY_PTR(ary)[idx++] : TOO_FEW)

while (p < pend) {
int explicit_endian = 0;
if (RSTRING_PTR(fmt) + RSTRING_LEN(fmt) != pend) {
    rb_raise(rb_eRuntimeError, "format string modified");
}