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Jimmy Cushnie edited this page Oct 7, 2020 · 3 revisions

WritePadBits and ReadPadBits is an optimization option to reduce cpu usage for subsequent reads. Here is an example:

buffer.Write(true);
buffer.Write(false);
buffer.Write(true);
buffer.Write(largeByteArray); // a 128 byte large byte array

This code will write 3 bits (the 3 booleans) and then the large byte array. Unfortunately reading the large byte array will be much slower than necessary, since every byte in the array is displaced 3 or 5 bits. Putting in a WritePadBits() after the booleans will skip 5 bits of data before starting to write again; which will align the byte array and make reading it much faster.

buffer.Write(true);
buffer.Write(false);
buffer.Write(true);
buffer.WritePadBits();
buffer.Write(largeByteArray);

The only caveat is that you must remember to use SkipPadBits() when reading the data:

bool one = buffer.ReadBoolean();
bool one = buffer.ReadBoolean();
bool one = buffer.ReadBoolean();
buffer.SkipPadBits();
byte[] arr = buffer.ReadBytes(128);
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