Question

In C++ I have data structure something like this:

struct Data 
{ 
int N; 
double R; 
char Name[20];
};

This Data I have to send over from a client to server on a different system (I have to send an array of Data structs, but i could send it just one by one). I would like to send it over as binary data, so that I could extract the data on the other end put it inside the same struct type.

If both (client and sever) are compiled with the same compiler the sizeof(Data) and all bit paddings within structure would be the same. But as server is 64bit running Linux and client could be even 32bit windows, the ordering of data within Data could be different.

Am I Right? What would be the best way of dealing with this the problem?

Answer 1

You could use Boost.Serialization to marshal/unmarshal (i.e. transform your data from your source computer format to one that is suitable for transmission, and from that format to the one used by your destination computer) your data and Boost.Asio to handle communication.