Twin Formats

Edit Text, Transmit Binary

Encoded data should be easy to read, easy to edit, as well as low-cost to process and transmit.

Concise Encoding accomplishes this using 1:1 compatible twin formats: one in text, and one in binary.

Keep everything in binary while transmitting and storing on machines, then seamlessly convert to/from text only where a human needs to be involved.

Rich Type Support

All the 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)
• URI
• String
• List
• Map
• Markup
• Typed Arrays (bytes, ints, floats, etc)
• Reference (for recursive/repetitive data)
• Metadata
• Comment
• Constants
• Null
• Custom (encapsulate your own)

Numeric Types

                
c1
{
    boolean       = @true
    binary-int    = -0b10001011
    octal-int     = 0o644
    decimal-int   = -10000000
    hex-int       = 0xfffe0001
    decimal-float = -14.125
    hex-float     = 0x5.1ec4p20
    not-a-number  = @nan
    infinity      = @inf
    n-infinity    = -@inf
}
                
            

Strings & String-Like

                
c1
{
    unquoted-string = no-quotes-needed
    quoted-string   = "A string delimited by quotes"
    url             = |u https://example.com/|
    email           = |u mailto:me@somewhere.com|
}
                
            

Other Basic Types

                
c1
{
    uuid            = @f1ce4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000
    date            = 2019-7-1
    time            = 18:04:00.940231541/E/Prague
    timestamp       = 2010-7-15/13:28:15.415942344/Z
    null            = @null
}
                
            

Containers & Arrays

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

Markup

                
c1
{
    main-view = <View,
        <Image src=|u images/avatar-image.jpg|>
        <Text id=HelloText,
            Hello! Please choose a name!
        >
        <TextInput id=NameInput style={height=40 borderColor=gray} OnChange="\.@@
            HelloText.SetText("Hello, " + NameInput.Text + "!")
        @@",
            Name me!
        >
    >
}
                
            

References

                
c1
{
    marked_object    = &id1:{
        description = "This map will be referenced later as $id1"
        value = -@inf
        child_elements = @null
        recursive = $id1
    }
    ref1             = $id1
    ref2             = $id1
    outside_ref      = $|u https://xyz.com/document.cte#some_id|
}
                
            

Metadata & Comments

                
c1
// Metadata about the entire documents
(
    // _ct is the creation time, _d is description, _v is version.
    // See common generic metadata spec.
    _ct = 2019-9-1/22:14:01
    _d = "Some description"
    _v = "1.1.0"
    whatever = "some arbitrary data"
)
{
    /* Comments look very C-like, except:
       /* Nested comments are allowed! */
    */

    // Double-slash comments are also possible.

    (info = "something interesting about a_list")
    a_list           = [1 2 3]
}
                
            

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|
}