BinData VB.NET Reference Documentation

BinData

Current Version: 11.0.0

Container for binary data. Provides methods for getting, setting, appending, etc. in binary and string encoded formats.

Object Creation

Dim obj As New Chilkat.BinData()

Properties

DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (ReadOnly)

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Boolean

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: True means success, False means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages.

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NumBytes
NumBytes As Integer (ReadOnly)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

The number of bytes contained within the object.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Boolean

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Version As String (ReadOnly)

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

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Methods

AppendBd
Function AppendBd(ByVal binData As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the contents of another BinData to this object.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendBinary
Function AppendBinary(ByVal data As Byte()) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Appends binary data to the current contents, if any.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendBom
Function AppendBom(ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the appropriate BOM (byte order mark), also known as a "preamble", for the given charset. If the charset has no defined BOM, then nothing is appended. An application would typically call this to append the utf-8, utf-16, or utf-32 BOM.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendByte
Function AppendByte(ByVal byteValue As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Appends a single byte. The byteValue should be a value from 0 to 255.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendCountedString
Function AppendCountedString(ByVal numCountBytes As Integer, ByVal bigEndian As Boolean, ByVal str As String, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Appends a byte count followed by the string in the desired character encoding, such as "utf-8". The numCountBytes is the size in bytes of the integer to represent the byte count. If 0, then a minimal number of bytes is used. If bigEndian is True, the byte count is appended in big endian byte ordering, otherwise little-ending byte ordering. The str is the string to be appended. The charset is the character encoding, such as "utf-8", "utf-16", "windows-1252", etc.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendData
Function AppendData(ByVal data As Byte(), ByVal numBytes As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Appends binary data to the current contents.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendEncoded
Function AppendEncoded(ByVal encData As String, ByVal encoding As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Appends encoded binary data to the current data. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendEncodedSb
Function AppendEncodedSb(ByVal sb As StringBuilder, ByVal encoding As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Decodes the contents of sb and appends the decoded bytes to this object. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendInt2
Function AppendInt2(ByVal value As Integer, ByVal littleEndian As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Appends a 16-bit integer (2 bytes). If littleEndian is True, then the integer bytes are appended in little-endian byte order, otherwise big-endian byte order is used.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendInt4
Function AppendInt4(ByVal value As Integer, ByVal littleEndian As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Appends a 32-bit integer (4 bytes). If littleEndian is True, then the integer bytes are appended in little-endian byte order, otherwise big-endian byte order is used.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendPadded
Function AppendPadded(ByVal str As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal padWithSpace As Boolean, ByVal fieldLen As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Appends a string to this object, padded to the fieldLen with NULL or SPACE chars. If padWithSpace is True, then SPACE chars are used and the string is not null-terminated. If fieldLen is False, then null bytes are used. The charset controls the byte representation to use, such as "utf-8".

Note: This call will always append a total number of bytes equal to fieldLen. If the str is longer than fieldLen, the method returns False to indicate failure and nothing is appended.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendSb
Function AppendSb(ByVal sb As StringBuilder, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends the contents of a StringBuilder to this object.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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AppendString
Function AppendString(ByVal str As String, ByVal charset As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Appends a string to this object. (This does not append the BOM. If a BOM is required, the AppendBom method can be called to append the appropriate BOM.)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ByteSwap
Sub ByteSwap(ByVal size As Integer)
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Does either 16-bit or 32-bit byte swapping of the entire contents. If size equals 16, then swaps in 2 bytes (e.g., 0x1234 → 0x3412). If size equals 32, then swaps 4 bytes (e.g., 0x12345678 → 0x78563412)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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CharsetConvert
Function CharsetConvert(ByVal fromCharset As String, ByVal toCharset As String, ByVal allOrNone As Boolean) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

This method converts the character encoding of an object's contents from one format to another, such as from Windows-1252 to UTF-8. The allOrNone parameter determines error handling for unrepresentable bytes. If allOrNone is True, the object's contents remain unchanged when errors occur. If False, error bytes are discarded. The method returns True if successful and False if errors occur.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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Clear
Function Clear() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Clears the contents.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ContentsEqual
Function ContentsEqual(ByVal binData As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Return True if the contents of this object equals the contents of binData.

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FindString
Function FindString(ByVal str As String, ByVal startIdx As Integer, ByVal charset As String) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Return the index where the first occurrence of str is found. Return -1 if not found. The startIdx indicates the byte index where the search begins. The charset specifies the byte representation of str that is to be searched. For example, it can be "utf-8", "windows-1252", "ansi", "utf-16", etc.

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GetBinary
Function GetBinary() As Byte()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves the binary data contained within the object.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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GetBinaryChunk
Function GetBinaryChunk(ByVal offset As Integer, ByVal numBytes As Integer) As Byte()
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves a chunk of the binary data contained within the object.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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GetByte
Function GetByte(ByVal index As Integer) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.92

Returns the value of the byte at the given index. The returned value is an integer from 0 to 255.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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GetData
Function GetData() As Byte()
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Retrieves the binary data contained within the object.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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GetDataChunk
Function GetDataChunk(ByVal offset As Integer, ByVal numBytes As Integer) As Byte()
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Retrieves a chunk of the binary data contained within the object.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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GetEncoded
Function GetEncoded(ByVal encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves the binary data as an encoded string. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetEncodedChunk
Function GetEncodedChunk(ByVal offset As Integer, ByVal numBytes As Integer, ByVal encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Retrieves a chunk of the binary data and returns it in encoded form. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetEncodedSb
Function GetEncodedSb(ByVal encoding As String, ByVal sb As StringBuilder) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.64

Writes the encoded data to a StringBuilder. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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GetHash
Function GetHash(ByVal algorithm As String, ByVal encoding As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Returns the hash of the contents of this object. The algorithm is the hash algorithm, and can be "sha1", "sha256", "sha384", "sha512", "sha3-224", "sha3-256", "sha3-384", "sha3-512", "md2", "md5", "ripemd128", "ripemd160","ripemd256", or "ripemd320". The encoding can be "base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "base32", "base58", "qp" (for quoted-printable), "url" (for url-encoding), "hex", "hexLower", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetInt2
Function GetInt2(ByVal index As Integer, ByVal littleEndian As Boolean) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the value of the 16-bit signed integer stored in big-endian or little-endian byte ordering at the given index.

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GetInt4
Function GetInt4(ByVal index As Integer, ByVal littleEndian As Boolean) As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the value of the 32-bit signed integer stored in big-endian or little-endian byte ordering at the given index.

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GetString
Function GetString(ByVal charset As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Interprets the bytes according to charset and returns the string. The charset can be "utf-8", "utf-16", "ansi", "iso-8859-*", "windows-125*", or any of the supported character encodings listed in the link below.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetTextChunk
Function GetTextChunk(ByVal startIdx As Integer, ByVal numBytes As Integer, ByVal charset As String) As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Returns numBytes bytes starting at startIdx. The bytes are interpreted according to charset (for example, "utf-8", "ansi", "utf-16", "windows-1252", etc.)

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetUInt2
Function GetUInt2(ByVal index As Integer, ByVal littleEndian As Boolean) As UInteger
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the value of the 16-bit unsigned integer stored in big-endian or little-endian byte ordering at the given index.

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GetUInt4
Function GetUInt4(ByVal index As Integer, ByVal littleEndian As Boolean) As UInteger
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

Returns the value of the 32-bit unsigned integer stored in big-endian or little-endian byte ordering at the given index.

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IsValidUtf8
Function IsValidUtf8() As Boolean
Introduced in version 10.1.0

Returns True if this object contains valid utf-8 byte sequences. Any invalid byte sequence that is not valid utf-8 will cause this function to return False.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadBinary
Function LoadBinary(ByVal data As Byte()) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Loads binary data and replaces the current contents, if any.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadEncoded
Function LoadEncoded(ByVal encData As String, ByVal encoding As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Loads binary data from an encoded string, replacing the current contents, if any. The encoding may be "Base64", "modBase64", "base64Url", "Base32", "Base58", "QP" (for quoted-printable), "URL" (for url-encoding), "Hex", or any of the encodings found at Chilkat Binary Encodings List.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFile
Function LoadFile(ByVal path As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Loads data from a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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RemoveByteVal
Sub RemoveByteVal(ByVal value As Integer)
Introduced in version 9.5.0.90

Removes bytes having a specified value (0-255). For example, to remove all null bytes, pass 0 in value.

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RemoveChunk
Function RemoveChunk(ByVal offset As Integer, ByVal numBytes As Integer) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.51

Removes a chunk of bytes from the binary data.

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SecureClear
Function SecureClear() As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Securely clears the contents by writing 0 bytes to the memory prior to deallocating the internal memory.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteAppendFile
Function WriteAppendFile(ByVal path As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.91

Appends the contents of this object to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteFile
Function WriteFile(ByVal path As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.62

Writes the contents to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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