Parsing a binary file. What is a modern way?

Question

I have a binary file with some layout I know. For example let format be like this:

• 2 bytes (unsigned short) - length of a string
• 5 bytes (5 x chars) - the

Answer 1

Since all of your data is variable, you can read the two blocks separately and still use casting:

struct id_contents
{
    uint16_t len;
    char id[];
} __attribute__((packed)); // assuming gcc, ymmv

struct data_contents
{
    uint32_t stride;
    float data[];
} __attribute__((packed)); // assuming gcc, ymmv

class my_row
{
    const id_contents* id_;
    const data_contents* data_;
    size_t len;

public:
    my_row(const char* buffer) {
        id_= reinterpret_cast(buffer);
        size_ = sizeof(*id_) + id_->len;
        data_ = reinterpret_cast(buffer + size_);
        size_ += sizeof(*data_) + 
            data_->stride * sizeof(float); // or however many, 3*float?

    }

    size_t size() const { return size_; }
};

That way you can use Mr. kbok's answer to parse correctly:

const char* buffer = getPointerToDataSomehow();

my_row data1(buffer);
buffer += data1.size();

my_row data2(buffer);
buffer += data2.size();

// etc.