[EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb: > How do I vary the byte offset of a field of a ctypes.Structure? > > How do I "use the dynamic nature of Python, and (re-)define the data > type after the required size is already known, on a case by case > basis"? > > \\\ > > For example, suppose sometimes I receive the value '\x03hi' + \x04bye' > for the struct: > > class Struct34(ctypes.Structure): > _pack_ = 1 > _fields_ = [('first', 3 * ctypes.c_ubyte), > ('second', 4 * ctypes.c_ubyte)] > > but then sometimes instead I receive the value '\x05left' + \x06right' > for the struct: > > class Struct56(ctypes.Structure): > _pack_ = 1 > _fields_ = [('first', 5 * ctypes.c_ubyte), > ('second', 6 * ctypes.c_ubyte)] > > Thus in general I receive (0xFF ** 2) possible combinations of field > lengths. > > /// > > How do I declare all those hugely many simply regular combinations as > one CTypes.structure? > > I also need to do series of 3 or 4 or 5 strings, not just 2 strings. > But always the byte offsets of the subsequent fields vary when the > byte sizes of the preceding fields vary. The byte size of the > enclosing packed struct varies as the length of the packed bytes it > contains.
Often it helps to ask yourself the question: How would I do this in C? IMO, the answer to this question, applied to your problem, would be: *Not* by using a structure. A structure is fine if the definition is fixed, or at most has *one* variable sized field at the very end. Nothing is true for your problem. Thomas -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list