Binaries and Pattern Matching
The first rule of binaries is “if in doubt, specify the type of each field.” Available types are binary, bits, bitstring, bytes, float, integer, utf8, utf16, and utf32. You can also add qualifiers:
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size(n): The size in bits of the field.
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signed or unsigned: For integer fields, should it be interpreted as signed?
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endianness: big, little, or native.
Use hyphens to separate multiple attributes for a field:
| | << length::unsigned-integer-size(12), flags::bitstring-size(4) >> = data |
However, unless you’re doing a lot of work with binary file or protocol formats, the most common use of all this scary stuff is to process UTF-8 strings.
String Processing with Binaries
When we process lists, we use patterns that split the ...
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