1# lws_struct 2 3## Overview 4 5lws_struct provides a lightweight method for serializing and deserializing C 6structs to and from JSON, and to and from sqlite3. 7 8 9 10 - you provide a metadata array describing struct members one-time, then call 11 generic apis to serialize and deserialize 12 13 - supports flat structs, single child struct pointers, and unbounded arrays / 14 linked-lists of child objects automatically using [lws_dll2 linked-lists](./README.lws_dll.md) 15 16 - supports boolean and C types char, int, long, long long in explicitly signed 17 and unsigned forms 18 19 - supports both char * type string members where the unbounded content is 20 separate and pointed to, and fixed length char array[] type members where 21 the content is part of the struct 22 23 - huge linear strings are supported by storing to a temp lwsac of chained chunks, 24 which is written into a single linear chunk in the main lwsac once the 25 total string length is known 26 27 - deserialization allocates into an [lwsac](../lib/misc/lwsac/README.md), so everything is inside as few 28 heap allocations as possible while still able to expand to handle arbitrary 29 array or strins sizes 30 31 - when deserialized structs are finished with, a single call to free the 32 lwsac frees the whole thing without having to walk it 33 34 - stateful serializaton and deserialization allows as-you-get packets incremental 35 parsing and production of chunks of as-you-can-send incremental serialization 36 output cleanly 37 38## Examples 39
