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# MessagePack

MessagePack is an efficient binary serialization format. It lets you exchange data among multiple languages like JSON. But it's faster and smaller. Small integers are encoded into a single byte, and typical short strings require only one extra byte in addition to the strings themselves.

References

- MessagePack website
- MessagePack specification

## Serialization

The library uses the following mapping from JSON values types to MessagePack types according to the MessagePack specification:

JSON value type | value/range | MessagePack type | first byte
--- | --- | --- | ---
null | `null` | nil | 0xC0
boolean | `true` | true | 0xC3
boolean | `false` | false | 0xC2
number_integer | -9223372036854775808..-2147483649 | int64 | 0xD3
number_integer | -2147483648..-32769 | int32 | 0xD2
number_integer | -32768..-129 | int16 | 0xD1
number_integer | -128..-33 | int8 | 0xD0
number_integer | -32..-1 | negative fixint | 0xE0..0xFF
number_integer | 0..127 | positive fixint | 0x00..0x7F
number_integer | 128..255 | uint 8 | 0xCC
number_integer | 256..65535 | uint 16 | 0xCD
number_integer | 65536..4294967295 | uint 32 | 0xCE
number_integer | 4294967296..18446744073709551615 | uint 64 | 0xCF
number_unsigned | 0..127 | positive fixint | 0x00..0x7F
number_unsigned | 128..255 | uint 8 | 0xCC
number_unsigned | 256..65535 | uint 16 | 0xCD
number_unsigned | 65536..4294967295 | uint 32 | 0xCE
number_unsigned | 4294967296..18446744073709551615 | uint 64 | 0xCF
number_float | any value representable by a float | float 32 | 0xCA
number_float | any value NOT representable by a float | float 64 | 0xCB
string | length: 0..31 | fixstr | 0xA0..0xBF
string | length: 32..255 | str 8 | 0xD9
string | length: 256..65535 | str 16 | 0xDA
string | length: 65536..4294967295 | str 32 | 0xDB
array | size: 0..15 | fixarray | 0x90..0x9F
array | size: 16..65535 | array 16 | 0xDC
array | size: 65536..4294967295 | array 32 | 0xDD
object | size: 0..15 | fix map | 0x80..0x8F
object | size: 16..65535 | map 16 | 0xDE
object | size: 65536..4294967295 | map 32 | 0xDF
binary | size: 0..255 | bin 8 | 0xC4
binary | size: 256..65535 | bin 16 | 0xC5
binary | size: 65536..4294967295 | bin 32 | 0xC6

Complete mapping

The mapping is complete in the sense that any JSON value type can be converted to a MessagePack value.

Any MessagePack output created by `to_msgpack` can be successfully parsed by `from_msgpack`.

Size constraints

The following values can not be converted to a MessagePack value:

- strings with more than 4294967295 bytes
- byte strings with more than 4294967295 bytes
- arrays with more than 4294967295 elements
- objects with more than 4294967295 elements

NaN/infinity handling

If NaN or Infinity are stored inside a JSON number, they are serialized properly. function which serializes NaN or Infinity to `null`.

Example

    #include <iostream>
    #include <iomanip>
    #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>

    using json = nlohmann::json;
    using namespace nlohmann::literals;

    int main()
    {
        // create a JSON value
        json j = R"({"compact": true, "schema": 0})"_json;

        // serialize it to MessagePack
        std::vector<std::uint8_t> v = json::to_msgpack(j);

        // print the vector content
        for (auto& byte : v)
        {
            std::cout << "0x" << std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << (int)byte << " ";
        }
        std::cout << std::endl;
    }

Output:

    0x82 0xa7 0x63 0x6f 0x6d 0x70 0x61 0x63 0x74 0xc3 0xa6 0x73 0x63 0x68 0x65 0x6d 0x61 0x00

## Deserialization

The library maps MessagePack types to JSON value types as follows:

MessagePack type | JSON value type | first byte
--- | --- | ---
positive fixint | number_unsigned | 0x00..0x7F
fixmap | object | 0x80..0x8F
fixarray | array | 0x90..0x9F
fixstr | string | 0xA0..0xBF
nil | `null` | 0xC0
false | `false` | 0xC2
true | `true` | 0xC3
float 32 | number_float | 0xCA
float 64 | number_float | 0xCB
uint 8 | number_unsigned | 0xCC
uint 16 | number_unsigned | 0xCD
uint 32 | number_unsigned | 0xCE
uint 64 | number_unsigned | 0xCF
int 8 | number_integer | 0xD0
int 16 | number_integer | 0xD1
int 32 | number_integer | 0xD2
int 64 | number_integer | 0xD3
str 8 | string | 0xD9
str 16 | string | 0xDA
str 32 | string | 0xDB
array 16 | array | 0xDC
array 32 | array | 0xDD
map 16 | object | 0xDE
map 32 | object | 0xDF
bin 8 | binary | 0xC4
bin 16 | binary | 0xC5
bin 32 | binary | 0xC6
ext 8 | binary | 0xC7
ext 16 | binary | 0xC8
ext 32 | binary | 0xC9
fixext 1 | binary | 0xD4
fixext 2 | binary | 0xD5
fixext 4 | binary | 0xD6
fixext 8 | binary | 0xD7
fixext 16 | binary | 0xD8
negative fixint | number_integer | 0xE0-0xFF

Info

Any MessagePack output created by `to_msgpack` can be successfully parsed by `from_msgpack`.

Example

    #include <iostream>
    #include <iomanip>
    #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>

    using json = nlohmann::json;

    int main()
    {
        // create byte vector
        std::vector<std::uint8_t> v = {0x82, 0xa7, 0x63, 0x6f, 0x6d, 0x70, 0x61, 0x63,
                                       0x74, 0xc3, 0xa6, 0x73, 0x63, 0x68, 0x65, 0x6d,
                                       0x61, 0x00
                                      };

        // deserialize it with MessagePack
        json j = json::from_msgpack(v);

        // print the deserialized JSON value
        std::cout << std::setw(2) << j << std::endl;
    }

Output:

    {
      "compact": true,
      "schema": 0
    }

Last update: May 1, 2022
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