R: Transfer Binary Data To and From Connections

readBin {base} | R Documentation

## Transfer Binary Data To and From Connections

### Description

Read binary data from a connection, or write binary data to a connection.

### Usage

    readBin(con, what, n = 1L, size = NA_integer_, signed = TRUE,
            endian = .Platform$endian)

    writeBin(object, con, size = NA_integer_,
             endian = .Platform$endian, useBytes = FALSE)

### Arguments

`con` | A connection object or a character string naming a file or a raw vector.
`what` | Either an object whose mode will give the mode of the vector to be read, or a character vector of length one describing the mode: one of `"numeric"`, `"double"`, `"integer"`, `"int"`, `"logical"`, `"complex"`, `"character"`, `"raw"`.
`n` | integer. The (maximal) number of records to be read. You can use an over-estimate here, but not too large as storage is reserved for `n` items.
`size` | integer. The number of bytes per element in the byte stream. The default, `NA_integer_`, uses the natural size. Size changing is not supported for raw and complex vectors.
`signed` | logical. Only used for integers of sizes 1 and 2, when it determines if the quantity on file should be regarded as a signed or unsigned integer.
`endian` | The endian-ness (`"big"` or `"little"`) of the target system for the file. Using `"swap"` will force swapping endian-ness.
`object` | An R object to be written to the connection.
`useBytes` | See `writeLines`.

### Details

These functions are intended to be used with binary-mode connections. If `con` is a character string, the functions call `file` to obtain a binary-mode file connection which is opened for the duration of the function call.

If the connection is open it is read/written from its current position. If it is not open, it is opened for the duration of the call in an appropriate mode (binary read or write) and then closed again. An open connection must be in binary mode.

If `readBin` is called with `con` a raw vector, the data in the vector is used as input. If `writeBin` is called with `con` a raw vector, it is just an indication that a raw vector should be returned.

If `size` is specified and not the natural size of the object, each element of the vector is coerced to an appropriate type before being written or as it is read. Possible sizes are 1, 2, 4 and possibly 8 for integer or logical vectors, and 4, 8 and possibly 12/16 for numeric vectors. (Note that coercion occurs as signed types except if `signed = FALSE` when reading integers of sizes 1 and 2.) Changing sizes is unlikely to preserve `NA`s, and the extended precision sizes are unlikely to be portable across platforms.

`readBin` and `writeBin` read and write C-style zero-terminated character strings. Input strings are limited to 10000 characters. `readChar` and `writeChar` can be used to read and write fixed-length strings. No check is made that the string is valid in the current locale.

Handling R's missing and special (`Inf`, `-Inf` and `NaN`) values is discussed in the ‘R Data Import/Export’ manual.

Only 2^31 - 1 bytes can be written in a single call (and that is the maximum capacity of a raw vector).

### Value

For `readBin`, a vector of appropriate mode and length the number of items read (which might be less than `n`).

For `writeBin`, a raw vector (if `con` is a raw vector) or invisibly `NULL`.

### Note

Integer read/writes of size 8 will be available if either C type `long` is of size 8 bytes or C type `long long` exists and is of size 8 bytes.

Real read/writes of size `sizeof(long double)` (usually 12 or 16 bytes) will be available only if that type is available and different from `double`.

If `readBin(what = character())` is used incorrectly on a file which does not contain C-style character strings, warnings (usually many) are given. From a file or connection, the input will be broken into pieces of length 10000 with any final part being discarded.

Using these functions on a text-mode connection may work but should not be mixed with text-mode access to the connection, especially if the connection was opened with an `encoding` argument.

### See Also

The ‘R Data Import/Export’ manual.

`readChar` to read/write fixed-length strings.

`connections`, `readLines`, `writeLines`.

`.Machine` for the sizes of `long`, `long long` and `long double`.

### Examples

    zz <- file("testbin", "wb")
    writeBin(1:10, zz)
    writeBin(pi, zz, endian = "swap")
    writeBin(pi, zz, size = 4)
    writeBin(pi^2, zz, size = 4, endian = "swap")
    writeBin(pi+3i, zz)
    writeBin("A test of a connection", zz)
    z <- paste("A very long string", 1:100, collapse = " + ")
    writeBin(z, zz)
    if(.Machine$sizeof.long == 8 || .Machine$sizeof.longlong == 8)
        writeBin(as.integer(5^(1:10)), zz, size = 8)
    if((s <- .Machine$sizeof.longdouble) > 8)
        writeBin((pi/3)^(1:10), zz, size = s)
    close(zz)

    zz <- file("testbin", "rb")
    readBin(zz, integer(), 4)
    readBin(zz, integer(), 6)
    readBin(zz, numeric(), 1, endian = "swap")
    readBin(zz, numeric(), size = 4)
    readBin(zz, numeric(), size = 4, endian = "swap")
    readBin(zz, complex(), 1)
    readBin(zz, character(), 1)
    z2 <- readBin(zz, character(), 1)
    if(.Machine$sizeof.long == 8 || .Machine$sizeof.longlong == 8)
        readBin(zz, integer(), 10,  size = 8)
    if((s <- .Machine$sizeof.longdouble) > 8)
        readBin(zz, numeric(), 10, size = s)
    close(zz)
    unlink("testbin")
    stopifnot(z2 == z)

    ## signed vs unsigned ints
    zz <- file("testbin", "wb")
    x <- as.integer(seq(0, 255, 32))
    writeBin(x, zz, size = 1)
    writeBin(x, zz, size = 1)
    x <- as.integer(seq(0, 60000, 10000))
    writeBin(x, zz, size = 2)
    writeBin(x, zz, size = 2)
    close(zz)
    zz <- file("testbin", "rb")
    readBin(zz, integer(), 8, size = 1)
    readBin(zz, integer(), 8, size = 1, signed = FALSE)
    readBin(zz, integer(), 7, size = 2)
    readBin(zz, integer(), 7, size = 2, signed = FALSE)
    close(zz)
    unlink("testbin")

    ## use of raw
    z <- writeBin(pi^{1:5}, raw(), size = 4)
    readBin(z, numeric(), 5, size = 4)
    z <- writeBin(c("a", "test", "of", "character"), raw())
    readBin(z, character(), 4)

[Package base version 3.1.2 Index]