are string variables binary safe?

[HansHenrik]

can i safely store binary data there?
results of this test suggest the answer is "no"
 

$test="";
for $i = 0 To 255
   $test = $test & Chr($i);
Next
ConsoleWrite( $test );

because it writes 0 bytes to stdout, i would have expected it to write 256 bytes to stdout

still would like some answers

(and if the answer is "no", then how should i manipulate binary data in AutoIt? )

edit: interestingly, if i change it to for $i = 1 To 255 , then it writes 255 bytes to stdout, so it seems something has a problem with null-bytes specifically (haven't verified that those 255 characters are what they're supposed to be, though)

Edited May 29, 2020 by HansHenrik

[Melba23]

HansHenrik,

The first element of the string is Chr(0) which AutoIt interprets (along with much else) as EOF and so prints nothing. 

Next question? 

M23

[HansHenrik]

ok, how do you write binary data to stdout then? how would one do this in AutoIt instead of PHP?

$ php -r 'echo chr(0); ' | base64
AA==
 

[Melba23]

HansHenrik,

No idea - I do not speak php. But you might like to look at Hex.

M23

 

[argumentum]

@HansHenrik, you are piping to base64. There is base64 functions if you look in the forum.
Look around, ...you may find to have no new questions to formulate  

[HansHenrik]

@argumentum doesn't matter what i pipe it to (and i don't intend to pipe it to base64, i actually intend to pipe it to a php-cli parent), i just want to know how to write binary data to stdout ( for 

 @Melba23 it's not really a PHP thing, most languages can do it (for example in C++  std::cout << std::string("\x00",1);  ) 

but i figured it out: 

 

; binary safe ConsoleWrite()  ( AutoIt's builtin ConsoleWrite() is not binary safe, it chokes if you try to write a null byte to stdout)
Func ConsoleWriteBinarySafe( Const ByRef $str)
   Local $bytesWritten=0;
   Local $stdoutHandle=_WinAPI_GetStdHandle(1);
   Local $tBuffer = DllStructCreate("byte[" & StringLen($str) & "]");
   DllStructSetData($tBuffer, 1, $str);
   _WinAPI_WriteFile ( $stdoutHandle, $tBuffer, StringLen($str), $bytesWritten);
   return $bytesWritten;
EndFunc

and it seems AutoIt string variables are indeed binary safe, now doing

 

$test="";
for $i = 0 To 255
   $test = $test & Chr($i);
Next
ConsoleWriteBinarySafe($test);

does indeed write every byte from 0 to 255 to stdout

Edited May 29, 2020 by HansHenrik