struct

The struct module provides binary data serialization and memory alignment utilities, allowing RayQuiro to pack variables into contiguous binary byte buffers and unpack binary data received from C libraries, network sockets, or binary file formats.

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Format Specifiers

Specifier	C Type	Size (Bytes)	Range
b	int8_t	1	-128 .. 127
B	uint8_t	1	0 .. 255
h	int16_t	2	-32,768 .. 32,767
H	uint16_t	2	0 .. 65,535
i, l	int32_t	4	-2,147,483,648 .. 2,147,483,647
I, L	uint32_t	4	0 .. 4,294,967,295
q	int64_t	8	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 .. 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
Q	uint64_t	8	0 .. 18,446,744,073,709,551,615
f	float	4	IEEE-754 32-bit single precision
d	double	8	IEEE-754 64-bit double precision
p	intptr_t	8	Pointer / buffer address

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Quick Reference

Function	Signature	Return Type	Description
struct.calcsize	struct.calcsize(format)	number	Calculates total byte size required by the format string.
struct.pack	struct.pack(format, ...values)	Buffer	Packs arguments into a contiguous binary byte buffer.
struct.unpack	struct.unpack(format, buffer, [offset])	array	Unpacks values from a buffer according to the format string.

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Usage Examples

Packing and Unpacking Binary Packets

var size = struct.calcsize("b h i d")
print("Struct size: " + size)

var buf = struct.pack("b h i d", 1, 500, 100000, 3.14159)
var values = struct.unpack("b h i d", buf, 0)

print(values[0])
print(values[1])
print(values[2])
print(values[3])

Passing Packed Structs to C FFI

var rect = struct.pack("i i i i", 10, 20, 800, 600)
var lib = ffi.load("user32.dll")
ffi.close(lib)