class Packer

Defined in: C4Packing.h

Represents an output serialization stream.

Definition

class Packer

Member Functions

`Packer::WriteArray`	Writes an array of data to the output stream.
`Packer::GetStringSize`	Returns the serialized size of a string.

Constructor

Packer(void *ptr);

Parameters

ptr A pointer to a memory block for the packed data.

Description

A Packer object is passed to the Packable::Pack function when the engine needs to serialize data stored in an object. The Packer object encapsulates an output serialization stream, and the << operator is typically used to write data to it.

Overloaded Operators

`template <typename type> Packer& operator <<(const type& data);`	Writes the data given by the `data` parameter to the output stream.
`Packer& operator <<(const bool& data);`	Writes the boolean value given by the `data` parameter to the output stream. (This operation always writes four bytes to the output stream.)
`template <long len> Packer& operator <<(const String<len>& string);`	Writes the string given by the `string` parameter to the output stream.

Description

In order to maintain four-byte alignment, char and short types should not be serialized directly with the << operator. Instead, such values should first be cast to a 32-bit type. Note that the bool type is given special handling by the << operator so that it always occupies four bytes.