CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++
Alexandre Severino
Alexandre Severino

Reputation: 1613

Best way to parse a stringstream

I currently have a std::stringstream that contains all the data from a given file. This file contains some text as well as binary data.

In the beginning there is a string name, so I get it this way:

std::string name;
std::getline(stream, name, '\0');

Later on, I need to retrieve the contentLength. Part where I'm failing:

int32_t contentLength;
stream >> contentLength;

I learned that this won't work, since the stream >> operator will try to convert instead of casting my 4 bytes with the literal value of the length.

I have seen some low level (c) implementation of how to do that. But I would like you guys to advise me of a more reliable way of doing it.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 232

Answers (1)

Benjamin Lindley
Benjamin Lindley

Reputation: 103761

You can use the read function to read binary data.

stream.read((char*)&contentLength, sizeof(contentLength));

You just need to be careful if you share this file between computers with different endianness, in which case the bytes might need to be reversed.

Upvotes: 3

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