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pack(p1, p2 = {}) public

Packs the contents of arr into a binary sequence according to the directives in aTemplateString (see the table below) Directives “A,” “a,” and “Z” may be followed by a count, which gives the width of the resulting field. The remaining directives also may take a count, indicating the number of array elements to convert. If the count is an asterisk (“*”), all remaining array elements will be converted. Any of the directives “sSiIlL” may be followed by an underscore (“_”) or exclamation mark (“!”) to use the underlying platform’s native size for the specified type; otherwise, they use a platform-independent size. Spaces are ignored in the template string. See also String#unpack.

a = [ "a", "b", "c" ]
n = [ 65, 66, 67 ]
a.pack("A3A3A3")   #=> "a  b  c  "
a.pack("a3a3a3")   #=> "a\000\000b\000\000c\000\000"
n.pack("ccc")      #=> "ABC"

If aBufferString is specified and its capacity is enough, pack uses it as the buffer and returns it. When the offset is specified by the beginning of aTemplateString, the result is filled after the offset. If original contents of aBufferString exists and it’s longer than the offset, the rest of offsetOfBuffer are overwritten by the result. If it’s shorter, the gap is filled with “0”.

Note that “buffer:” option does not guarantee not to allocate memory in pack. If the capacity of aBufferString is not enough, pack allocates memory.

Directives for pack.

Integer       | Array   |
Directive     | Element | Meaning
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
C             | Integer | 8-bit unsigned (unsigned char)
S             | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, native endian (uint16_t)
L             | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, native endian (uint32_t)
Q             | Integer | 64-bit unsigned, native endian (uint64_t)
J             | Integer | pointer width unsigned, native endian (uintptr_t)
              |         | (J is available since Ruby 2.3.)
              |         |
c             | Integer | 8-bit signed (signed char)
s             | Integer | 16-bit signed, native endian (int16_t)
l             | Integer | 32-bit signed, native endian (int32_t)
q             | Integer | 64-bit signed, native endian (int64_t)
j             | Integer | pointer width signed, native endian (intptr_t)
              |         | (j is available since Ruby 2.3.)
              |         |
S_ S!         | Integer | unsigned short, native endian
I I_ I!       | Integer | unsigned int, native endian
L_ L!         | Integer | unsigned long, native endian
Q_ Q!         | Integer | unsigned long long, native endian (ArgumentError
              |         | if the platform has no long long type.)
              |         | (Q_ and Q! is available since Ruby 2.1.)
J!            | Integer | uintptr_t, native endian (same with J)
              |         | (J! is available since Ruby 2.3.)
              |         |
s_ s!         | Integer | signed short, native endian
i i_ i!       | Integer | signed int, native endian
l_ l!         | Integer | signed long, native endian
q_ q!         | Integer | signed long long, native endian (ArgumentError
              |         | if the platform has no long long type.)
              |         | (q_ and q! is available since Ruby 2.1.)
j!            | Integer | intptr_t, native endian (same with j)
              |         | (j! is available since Ruby 2.3.)
              |         |
S> s> S!> s!> | Integer | same as the directives without ">" except
L> l> L!> l!> |         | big endian
I!> i!>       |         | (available since Ruby 1.9.3)
Q> q> Q!> q!> |         | "S>" is same as "n"
J> j> J!> j!> |         | "L>" is same as "N"
              |         |
S< s< S!< s!< | Integer | same as the directives without "<" except
L< l< L!< l!< |         | little endian
I!< i!<       |         | (available since Ruby 1.9.3)
Q< q< Q!< q!< |         | "S<" is same as "v"
J< j< J!< j!< |         | "L<" is same as "V"
              |         |
n             | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, network (big-endian) byte order
N             | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, network (big-endian) byte order
v             | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, VAX (little-endian) byte order
V             | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, VAX (little-endian) byte order
              |         |
U             | Integer | UTF-8 character
w             | Integer | BER-compressed integer

Float        | Array   |
Directive    | Element | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
D d          | Float   | double-precision, native format
F f          | Float   | single-precision, native format
E            | Float   | double-precision, little-endian byte order
e            | Float   | single-precision, little-endian byte order
G            | Float   | double-precision, network (big-endian) byte order
g            | Float   | single-precision, network (big-endian) byte order

String       | Array   |
Directive    | Element | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A            | String  | arbitrary binary string (space padded, count is width)
a            | String  | arbitrary binary string (null padded, count is width)
Z            | String  | same as ``a'', except that null is added with *
B            | String  | bit string (MSB first)
b            | String  | bit string (LSB first)
H            | String  | hex string (high nibble first)
h            | String  | hex string (low nibble first)
u            | String  | UU-encoded string
M            | String  | quoted printable, MIME encoding (see RFC2045)
m            | String  | base64 encoded string (see RFC 2045, count is width)
             |         | (if count is 0, no line feed are added, see RFC 4648)
P            | String  | pointer to a structure (fixed-length string)
p            | String  | pointer to a null-terminated string

Misc.        | Array   |
Directive    | Element | Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@            | ---     | moves to absolute position
X            | ---     | back up a byte
x            | ---     | null byte
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