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<concept id="GUID-A60BFFE4-E527-547C-AF4D-30BB7A1C0D07" xml:lang="en"><title>Text

and binary data</title><shortdesc>Describes how C strings are handled in text and binary data.</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>In ‘C’, strings are characterised by the need for a zero terminator to

flag the end of the string. They suffer from a number of problems. In particular,

they cannot include binary data within them (in case that data includes binary

zeroes) and operations on them are, in general, inefficient. ‘C’ strings need

to be handled in a different way to binary data, as reflected in the <codeph>memxxx()</codeph> and <codeph>strxxx()</codeph> function

groups in the ANSI ‘C’ library.</p>

<p>Descriptors allow strings and binary data to be represented in the same

way; this allows the same functions to be used in both cases.</p>

<p>For binary data, the 8 bit descriptors should be used explicitly. The distinction

between Unicode and non-Unicode has no meaning for binary data</p>

<p>Note that there is no practical use for explicit 16 bit binary data.</p>