bytes & string.md

59 - bytes & string

Variables of type bytes and string are special arrays

1. bytes is similar to byte[], but it is packed tightly in calldata and memory

2. string is equal to bytes but does not allow length or index access

3. Solidity does not have string manipulation functions, but there are third-party string libraries

4. Use bytes for arbitrary-length raw byte data and string for arbitrary-length string (UTF-8) data

5. Use bytes over byte[] because it is cheaper, since byte[] adds 31 padding bytes between the elements

6. If you can limit the length to a certain number of bytes, always use one of the value types bytes1 to bytes32 because they are much cheaper

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Slide Screenshot

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Slide Deck

• bytes -> bytes Data
• Arbitrary Data/Length
• bytes1, bytes2..bytes32
• bytes over byte[] -> Cheaper
• string == bytes
• No length/Index Access
• Solidity -> No built-in String Manipulation Functions
• External Libraries

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References

• Youtube Reference