How to compress Length of 4 Bytes to fit into 1 Byte only of Tag-Length-Value stream?

Question

I see this guy do something different for Tag-Length-Value, He allow to store large length > 255, As we see in TLV examples it working like that:

I need to store My ID + Name

Tag 1, Length 5, Value (ID) = 12345, and so on

Back again to what I need, How this guy/TlvEncoding compress the length to allow store more than 4 bytes. he something with AND, OR binary logical operators with 127 for example:

Assume that I have string of length 1000, Which exceed 1 byte. He do following

Note: 0xffff = 65,535 maximum value of UInt16 or ushort. I think condition when length 1000 will met on that line. and stream will write 2 bytes for length. But when he read that value he do more logical manipulation. which am already leaks. :(

    /// <summary>
    /// Write TLV length to stream
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="stream">stream to write to</param>
    /// <param name="length">length to write or null to write indefinite length</param>
    public static void WriteLength(Stream stream, int? length)
    {
        if (length == null)
        {
            stream.WriteByte(0x80); // indefinite form
            return;
        }

        if (length < 0 || length > 0xffffffff)
            throw new TlvException(string.Format("Invalid length value: {0}", length));

        if (length <= 0x7f) // use short form if possible
        {
            stream.WriteByte(checked((byte)length));
            return;
        }

        byte lengthBytes;

        // use minimum number of octets
        if (length <= 0xff)
            lengthBytes = 1;
        else if (length <= 0xffff)
            lengthBytes = 2;
        else if (length <= 0xffffff)
            lengthBytes = 3;
        else if (length <= 0xffffffff)
            lengthBytes = 4;
        else
            throw new TlvException(string.Format("Length value too big: {0}", length));

        stream.WriteByte((byte)(lengthBytes | 0x80));

        // shift out the bytes
        for (var i = lengthBytes - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            var data = (byte)(length >> (8 * i));
            stream.WriteByte(data);
        }
    }

In read operation he do: ( I think condition will met here 0x7f; // remove 0x80 bit) I don't know exactly why he choose 0x7f which equals 127, and he remove 0x80 that equal 128.

    /// <summary>
    /// Read TLV length from stream
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="stream">Stream to read</param>
    /// <returns>length or null to indicate indefinite length</returns>
    public static int? ReadLength(Stream stream)
    {
        var readByte = stream.ReadByte();
        if (readByte == -1)
            throw new TlvException("Unexpected end of stream while reading length");

        if ((readByte & 0x80) == 0)
            return (int)readByte; // length is in first byte

        int length = 0;
        var lengthBytes = readByte & 0x7f; // remove 0x80 bit

        if (lengthBytes == 0)
            return null; // indefinite form

        if (lengthBytes > 4)
            throw new TlvException($"Unsupported length: {lengthBytes} bytes");

        for (var i = 0; i < lengthBytes; i++)
        {
            readByte = stream.ReadByte();
            if (readByte == -1)
                throw new TlvException("Unexpected end of stream while reading length");

            length <<= 8;
            length |= (int)readByte;
        }

        return length;
    }

Please I just need to understand how things going on there, Because I need to apply same method in an array of bytes. I need to store i.e: string of 1500 length, datetime, some integers, as (TLVs). But All I know is how to apply only 1 byte length (255).

So I can only read length of 1 byte, Because I don't know how to tell array that I need to seek for length of 3 bytes? or 2 bytes? I must then store all TLVs with 2 or 3 bytes. That a waste of space.

1. Integer stored as 4 bytes (OK), So I can write Length is (byte) 4 (note byte cast)
2. String can stored only in 255, But how to do it like above guy? 1500 length in 3 bytes?

Simply I explain it, He allow to store 1 byte as length, sometimes 3 bytes as length. I don't even know how he can tell compiler/stream to read this tag length from next 3 bytes. or next 2 bytes. or 1 byte.

Answer 1

you mean generic type ?

public abstract class Property<T> {
  protected String name;
  protected T type;

  public T getType() {
   return type;
  }
  public void setType(T type) {
    this.type = type;
  }
}

public class StringProperty extends Property<String> {
 ...
}