How to parse/encode binary message formats?

Question

I need to parse and encode to a legacy binary message format in Java. I began by using DataOutputStream to read/write primitive types but the problem I\'m having is that the mes

Answer 1

Just to add to pholser's answer, I think the Preon version would be something like this:

class DataStructure {
  @BoundNumber(size="32")  long       first; // uint32
  @Bound                   boolean    second; // boolean
  @Bound                   boolean    third; // boolean
  @BoundNumber(size="32")  long       fourth; // uint32
  @BoundNumber(size="4")   int        fifth; // enum
  @BoundString(size="32")  String     sixth; // string
}

... but in reality, you can make your life even easier by using Preon's support for dealing with enumerations directly.

Creating a Codec for it and using it to decode some data would be something like this:

Codec codec = Codecs.create(DataStructure.class)
DataStructure data = Codecs.decode(codec, ....)