Twin Formats

Edit Text, Transmit Binary

Encoded data should be easy to read and edit, but also low-cost to process and transmit. Concise Encoding has twin 1:1 compatible formats: one in text, and one in binary.

Save CPU and bandwidth

Keep everything in binary while transmitting and storing, and seamlessly convert to/from text when a human is involved.

Strongly Typed

All the common types you need

Tired of coercing your data into strings? Concise Encoding supports these types natively:

• Bool
• Integer (arbitrary size)
• Float (binary, decimal, arbitrary size)
• UUID
• Time (date, time, timestamp)
• Resource Identifier (URL, URI, IRI, etc)
• String
• List
• Map
• Markup
• Relationship
• Typed Arrays (bytes, ints, floats, etc)
• Reference (for recursive/repetitive data)
• Metadata
• Comment
• Constants
• NA
• File
• Custom (encapsulate your own)

Numeric

                
c1
{
    boolean       = @true
    binary-int    = -0b10001011
    octal-int     = 0o644
    decimal-int   = -10000000
    hex-int       = 0xfffe0001
    very-long-int = 100000000000000000000000000000000000009
    decimal-float = -14.125
    hex-float     = 0x5.1ec4p20
    very-long-flt = 4.957234990634579394723460546348e1000000000
    not-a-number  = @nan
    infinity      = @inf
    neg-infinity  = -@inf
}
                
            

String-Like

                
c1
{
    unquoted-str = no_quotes-needed
    quoted-str   = "Quoted strings support escapes: \n \t \27f"
    url          = |r https://example.com/|
    email        = |r mailto:me@somewhere.com|
}
                
            

Other Basic Types

                
c1
{
    uuid      = @f1ce4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000
    date      = 2019-07-01
    time      = 18:04:00.940231541/E/Prague
    timestamp = 2010-07-15/13:28:15.415942344/Z
    na1       = @na:"Error reading DB"
    na2       = @na // Data not available (no reason given)
    file      = |application/x-sh 23 21 2f 62 69 6e 2f 73 68 0a 0a 65 63 68 6f 20 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64 0a|
}
                
            

Containers

                
c1
{
    list          = [1 2.5 "a string"]
    map           = {one=1 2=two today=2020-09-10}
    bytes         = |u8x 01 ff de ad be ef|
    int16-array   = |i16 7374 17466 -9957|
    uint16-hex    = |u16x 91fe 443a 9c15|
    float32-array = |f32 1.5e10 -8.31e-12|
}
                
            

Markup

                
c1
{
    main-view = <View,
        <Image src=|r img/avatar-image.jpg|>
        <Text id=HelloText,
            Hello! Please choose a name!
        >
        // OnChange contains code which might have problematic characters.
        // Use verbatim sequences (\.IDENTIFIER ... IDENTIFIER) to handle this.
        <TextInput id=NameInput style={height=40 borderColor=gray} OnChange="\.@@
            NameInput.Parent.InsertRawAfter(NameInput, "<Image src=|r img/check.svg|>")
            HelloText.SetText("Hello, " + NameInput.Text + "!")
            @@",
            Name me!
        >
    >
}
                
            

References

                
c1
{
    // Entire map will be referenced later as $id1
    marked_object = &id1:{
        recursive = $id1
    }
    ref1        = $id1
    ref2        = $id1

    // Reference pointing to part of another document.
    outside_ref = $|r https://xyz.com/document.cte#some_id|
}
                
            

Metadata

                
c1
// Metadata about the entire document
(
    created     = 2019-9-1/22:14:01
    description = "A demonstration"
    version     = "1.1.0"
){
    children = (
        // Metadata about the list of children
        description = "Homer's children"
    )[Bart Lisa Maggie]
}
                
            

Relationships

                
c1 (
    // Marked base resource identifiers used for concatenation.
    // (Stored in metadata because they themselves aren't part of the data)
    rdf = [
        &people:|r https://springfield.gov/people#|
        &e:|r https://example.org/|
    ]
){
    // Map-encoded relationships (the map is the subject)
    $people:homer_simpson = {

        /* $e refers to |r https://example.org/|
         * $e:wife concatenates to |r https://example.org/wife|
         */
        $e:wife = $people:marge_simpson

        // Multiple relationship objects
        $e:regrets = [
            $firing
            $forgotten_birthday
        ]
    }

    // Relationship containers (@[subject predicate object])
    rdf-statements = [
        &marge_birthday:@[$people:marge_simpson $e:birthday 1956-10-01]
        &forgotten_birthday:@[$people:homer_simpson $e:forgot $marge_birthday]
        &firing:@[$people:montgomery_burns $e:fired $people:homer_simpson]

        // Multiple relationship subjects
        @[[$firing $forgotten_birthday] $e:contribute $e:marital_strife]
    ]
}
                
            

Constants

                
c1
{
    /* Given: Actual type and value of "eggshell" and
     *        "navy-blue" have been defined in a schema
     */
    wall_color = #eggshell
    door_color = #navy-blue
}
                
            

Custom Types

                
c1
{
    // Custom types are user-defined, with user-supplied codecs.
    custom-text   = |ct cplx(2.94+3i)|
    custom-binary = |cb 04 f6 28 3c 40 00 00 40 40|
}