User Defined Types and DWord alignment

[Paul]

Hi,

Please somebody clarify this following for me:

I am writing my own data packets to a binary file. Each packet I write
to the file is of equal length and format. For example each packet
will be 50 bytes in length and I know that the first byte of each
packet is the message header, the second 2 bytes is an integer
representing some value or other, and so on. My question is, can I use
a user defined type to read the data back out from the file without
DWord alignment affecting things. I have defined a type to match the
structure of my packet, e.g.

Private myType as Type
MsgHeader as Byte ' 1 byte
Field1 As Integer ' 2 bytes
etc.
End Type

and have read the values back in from the file using

Open "myfile" For Binary Access Read Lock Read Write As #FileNum
Get #FileNum, 1, myType
Close #FileNum

and I seem to get the correct values. As a comparison I declared each
element as a separate variable

Dim MsgHeader As Byte
Dim Field1 As Integer

and read in the values as follows

Open "myfile" For Binary Access Read Lock Read Write As #FileNum
Get #FileNum, 1, MsgHeader
Get #FileNum, 2, Field1
Close #FileNum

and they match. However when I use Len(B), e.g.

Debug.Print LenB(myType)

to get the number of bytes required to store my type I get more than
the 50 expected. Does VB always take care of DWord alignment when
reading values back out from a UDT in these situations? I don't output
to my binary file using UDTs because of the alignment issue but am
wondering if I can always use them when reading data back in.

Thanks

Paul

[J French]

Re: User Defined Types and DWord alignment

On 31 May 2004 08:46:22 -0700, paulsmith5@hotm ail.com (Paul) wrote:
[color=blue]
>Hi,
>
>Please somebody clarify this following for me:
>
>I am writing my own data packets to a binary file. Each packet I write
>to the file is of equal length and format. For example each packet
>will be 50 bytes in length and I know that the first byte of each
>packet is the message header, the second 2 bytes is an integer
>representing some value or other, and so on. My question is, can I use
>a user defined type to read the data back out from the file without
>DWord alignment affecting things. I have defined a type to match the
>structure of my packet, e.g.[/color]

In memory the UDT is 'aligned'

When written to disk it undergoes a 'magical' transformation

- UDTs are safe for disk reading/writing

[Paul]

Re: User Defined Types and DWord alignment

Hi J,

Thanks for the clarification.

Paul