PureBasic Forums - English

BarryG wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 12:50 pm

User_Russian wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 11:28 amMessageRequester() - 267 KB.
Empty source file - 265 KB.

Let's compare that with PureBasic 5.73:

MessageRequester() - 4.50 KB.
Empty source file - 2 KB.

That's why I still use 5.73 for my private projects. The old PureBasics were so lean and clean.

PrincieD wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 7:14 am Wow! that sounds awesome Fred, so instead of reading a string for null termination - the length is already cached?

Fred wrote:All strings are now prefixed by their length (except the strings in DataSection). [...]
That means than all string operation will have instant length information resulting in faster operation as iterating byte by byte on the string to find the null terminated char is no more needed.

DeanH wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 5:11 am The change to string handling sounds similar to the old BSTR string type. Much faster to read records from a large SQLite database. Question: how is the length stored? Long? Quad? Another way? Does it limit the maximum length of a string?

Fred wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 11:39 am

DeanH wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 5:11 am The change to string handling sounds similar to the old BSTR string type. Much faster to read records from a large SQLite database. Question: how is the length stored? Long? Quad? Another way? Does it limit the maximum length of a string?

It's an integer minus 1 bit (31 bit on x86, 63 bit on x64).

PureBasicPath$ = Space(#MAX_PATH)
GetModuleFileName_(GetModuleHandle_(#Null$), @PureBasicPath$, #MAX_PATH)
Debug Len(PureBasicPath$)
PureBasicPath$ = PeekS(@PureBasicPath$)
Debug Len(PureBasicPath$)

Using Win32 API with Space() for example will require an extra PeekS().

ChrisR wrote: Tue Jan 27, 2026 7:44 pm Or by using fryquez ResetStringLength procedure/macro: viewtopic.php?p=650721#p650721

Code: Select all

CompilerIf #PB_Compiler_Version >= 640
  Declare ResetStringLength(*s.Character)
  
  Procedure ResetStringLength(*s.Character)
    Protected *p.Integer = *s -SizeOf(Integer)
    *p\i = 0
    While *s\c
      *p\i + 1
      *s + SizeOf(Character)
    Wend
  EndProcedure
CompilerElse
  Macro ResetStringLength(s)
    ;
  EndMacro
CompilerEndIf

CompilerIf Not #PB_Compiler_Debugger
  OpenConsole("ResetStringLength")
  Start = ElapsedMilliseconds()
  For l = 0 To 5000000
    PureBasicPath$ = Space(#MAX_PATH)
    GetModuleFileName_(GetModuleHandle_(#Null$), @PureBasicPath$, #MAX_PATH)
    PureBasicPath$ = PeekS(@PureBasicPath$)
  Next
  PrintN("PeekS Len(" + Str(Len(PureBasicPath$)) + "): " + Str(ElapsedMilliseconds() - Start) + " ms")
  
  Start = ElapsedMilliseconds()
  For l = 0 To 5000000
    PureBasicPath$ = Space(#MAX_PATH)
    GetModuleFileName_(GetModuleHandle_(#Null$), @PureBasicPath$, #MAX_PATH)
    ResetStringLength(@PureBasicPath$)
  Next
  PrintN("ResetStringLength Len(" + Str(Len(PureBasicPath$)) + "): " + Str(ElapsedMilliseconds() - Start) + " ms")
  
  Delay(10000)
CompilerEndIf

;PeekS Len(61): 517 ms
;ResetStringLength Len(61): 350 ms

Fred wrote: Fri Jan 23, 2026 10:47 amBasically if you patch a string by putting a zero in it, the Len() function will be wrong, and the concat functions will fail. You will need to use PeekS() for this.