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• Bytes

bytes

A sequence of bytes.

This is conceptually similar to an array of integers between 0 and 255, but represented much more efficiently. You can iterate over it using a for loop.

You can convert

• a string or an array of integers to bytes with the bytes constructor
• bytes to a string with the str constructor, with UTF-8 encoding
• bytes to an array of integers with the array constructor

When reading data from a file, you can decide whether to load it as a string or as raw bytes.

#bytes((123, 160, 22, 0)) \
#bytes("Hello 😃")

#let data = read(
  "rhino.png",
  encoding: none,
)

// Magic bytes.
#array(data.slice(0, 4)) \
#str(data.slice(1, 4))

Constructor

If a type has a constructor, you can call it like a function to create a new value of the type.

Converts a value to bytes.

• Strings are encoded in UTF-8.
• Arrays of integers between 0 and 255 are converted directly. The dedicated byte representation is much more efficient than the array representation and thus typically used for large byte buffers (e.g. image data).

#bytes("Hello 😃") \
#bytes((123, 160, 22, 0))

value

str or bytes or array

RequiredPositional

Positional parameters are specified in order, without names.

The value that should be converted to bytes.

Definitions

Functions and types and can have associated definitions. These are accessed by specifying the function or type, followed by a period, and then the definition's name.

len

The length in bytes.

at

Returns the byte at the specified index. Returns the default value if the index is out of bounds or fails with an error if no default value was specified.

index

int

RequiredPositional

Positional parameters are specified in order, without names.

The index at which to retrieve the byte.

default

any

A default value to return if the index is out of bounds.

slice

Extracts a subslice of the bytes. Fails with an error if the start or index is out of bounds.

start

int

RequiredPositional

Positional parameters are specified in order, without names.

The start index (inclusive).

end

none or int

Positional

Positional parameters are specified in order, without names.

The end index (exclusive). If omitted, the whole slice until the end is extracted.

Default: none

count

int

The number of items to extract. This is equivalent to passing start + count as the end position. Mutually exclusive with end.

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