In-memory binary data terms

Release:	4.6 • 5.0 • 5.1 • 5.2 • 5.3 • 5.4 • 6.0 • 6.1 • 6.2 • 6.3 • 6.4 • 6.5

Binary data terms (or "blobs")

Sometimes it's useful to hold some arbitrary raw, binary data in memory because of its compactness and speed of reading or writing. The downside is that you can't easily interpret binary data. Such an in-memory block is sometimes called a "blob". The more formal name is a binary data term.

A binary data term is just a block of memory with arbitrary data. Often it's an in-memory copy of a binary file. This can be useful when your code makes many individual reads from different locations in the file, since it avoids repeated file-open and file-close operations, and accesses everything in memory. Sometimes the in-memory image is a portion of a binary file.

Creating a binary data term in memory

The following are ways in which a binary data term can be created.

A base64 literal, e.g., base64'uC8AMcjLQA=='
A base16 literal, e.g., base16'b82f0031c8cb40'
WriteBinaryFile("<>", ...)
ReadBinaryFile( filename, typeFlags:7 )
GetFromBinaryData(..., typeFlags:7)
WriteImageFile( "<>", ...)
ReadProtoBufFile -- experimental non-supported function

Note that functions that read or write to external sources (files) require Analytica Enterprise or better.

Reading the contents of an in-memory binary data term

BinaryDataSize(data) -- returns the number of bytes
GetFromBinaryData(...)
ParseProtoBuf -- experimental, non-supported function

Generally when you are reading a piece of information from the blob, you'll want to interpret the contents in some way. The parameters of GetFromBinaryData enable you to control this interpretation so that you can read as different non-opaque data types.

Conversions

This table summarizes various data transformations to and from binary data formats that you might need.

From	To	Method	Required release
binary file (or part of)	binary data term	ReadBinaryFile	Analytica 6.2
binary data term (or part of)	Binary file	WriteBinaryFile	Analytica 6.2
part of binary data term	another binary data term	`GetFromBinaryData(...typeFlags:7)`	Analytica 6.2
image file	binary data term	`ReadBinaryFile(filename,typeFlags:7)`	Analytica 6.4
in-memory image	binary data term	`WriteImageFile("<>", image)`	Analytica 6.4
binary data term	image file	`WriteBinaryFile(...,typeflags:7)` The binary data must contain the bytes for a valid image.	Analytica 6.2
binary data term	in-memory image	`GetFromBinaryData( ..., typeFlags:8 )`	Analytica 6.4
base64 literal	binary data term	`base64'....`	Analytica 6.2
base64 text	binary data term	`Evaluate( f"base64'{txt}'")` \| Analytica 6.2
base64 literal	image	`GetFromBinaryData( base64'...', typeFlags:8 )`	Analytica 6.4
base64 text	image	`GetFromBinaryData( f"base64'{txt}'", typeFlags:8 )`	Analytica 6.4
binary data term	base64 literal text	`f"{data:b}"`	Analytica 6.2
hexadecimal literal	binary data term	`base16'....`	Analytica 6.4
hexadecimal text	binary data term	`Evaluate( f"base16'{txt}'")` \| Analytica 6.4
hexadecimal literal	image	`GetFromBinaryData( base16'...', typeFlags:8 )`	Analytica 6.4
hexadecimal text	image	`ImageFromHex( text )`	Analytica 5.0
binary data term	hexadecimal literal text	`f"{data:X}"`	Analytica 6.4
binary data term	hexadecimal text (digits only)	`f"{data:H}"`	Analytica 6.4

In-memory binary data terms

Contents

Binary data terms (or "blobs")

Creating a binary data term in memory

Reading the contents of an in-memory binary data term

Conversions

See Also