bytesconv

bytesconv

High-performance zero-allocation conversion between strings and byte slices for Go.

Features

• Zero memory allocation conversions
• Support for Go 1.19+ and Go 1.20+ with optimized implementations
• Significant performance improvement over standard conversions
• Uses unsafe operations for maximum efficiency

Usage

Convert string to byte slice

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/appleboy/com/bytesconv"
)

func main() {
    s := "hello world"
    b := bytesconv.StrToBytes(s)
    fmt.Printf("%v\n", b) // Output: [104 101 108 108 111 32 119 111 114 108 100]
    
    // Zero allocation - much faster than []byte(s)
    fmt.Printf("Length: %d\n", len(b)) // Output: Length: 11
}

Convert byte slice to string

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/appleboy/com/bytesconv"
)

func main() {
    b := []byte{'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'}
    s := bytesconv.BytesToStr(b)
    fmt.Println(s) // Output: Hello
    
    // Zero allocation - much faster than string(b)
}

Round-trip conversion

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/appleboy/com/bytesconv"
)

func main() {
    original := "Hello, 世界!"
    
    // String -> []byte -> string
    bytes := bytesconv.StrToBytes(original)
    back := bytesconv.BytesToStr(bytes)
    
    fmt.Println("Original:", original)
    fmt.Println("Round-trip:", back)
    fmt.Println("Equal:", original == back) // Output: Equal: true
}

API Reference

StrToBytes(s string) []byte

Converts a string to a byte slice without memory allocation.

Parameters:

• s: Input string to convert

Returns:

• []byte: Byte slice representation of the string

BytesToStr(b []byte) string

Converts a byte slice to a string without memory allocation.

Parameters:

• b: Input byte slice to convert

Returns:

• string: String representation of the byte slice

Implementation Details

• Go 1.20+: Uses unsafe.Slice() and unsafe.String() for optimal performance
• Go 1.19: Uses manual unsafe pointer manipulation for compatibility
• Build Tags: Automatically selects the appropriate implementation based on Go version
• Safety: While using unsafe operations, the functions are safe when used correctly

Performance

These functions provide significant performance benefits over standard conversions:

• StrToBytes() vs []byte(s): No allocation, much faster
• BytesToStr() vs string(b): No allocation, much faster

Warnings

• The returned byte slice from StrToBytes() shares memory with the original string
• The returned string from BytesToStr() shares memory with the original byte slice
• Do not modify the returned byte slice from StrToBytes() as it may cause undefined behavior
• These functions are safe for read-only operations and temporary conversions