What for people sometimes convert numbers or strings to bytes?

Question

Sometimes I encounter questions about converting sth to bytes. Are anything existing where it is vitally important to convert to bytes or what for could I convert sth to bytes?

Answer 1

In most languages the most common string functions come as part of the language or in a library/include/import that comes pre-made, often employing object code to take advantage of processor based strings functions, however, sometimes you need to do something with a string that isnt natively supported by the language so since 8-bit days, people have viewed strings as an array of 7 or 8-bit characters, which fit within a byte and use conventions like ASCII to determine which byte value represents which character.

While standard languages often have functions like "string.replaceChar(OFFSET,'a')" this methodology can be painstaking slow because each call to the replaceChar method results in processing overhead which may be greater than the processing needing to be done.

There is also the simplicity factor when designing your own string algorithms but like I said, most of the common algorithms come prebuilt in modern languages. (stringCompare, trimString, reverseString, etc).

Suppose you want to perform an operation on a string which doesnt come as standard.

Suppose you want to add two numbers which are represented in decimal digits in strings and the size of these numbers are greater than the 64-bit bus size of the processor? The RSA encryption/descryption behind the SSL browser padlocks employs the use of numbers which dont fit into the word size of a desktop computer but none the less the programs on a desktop which deal with RSA certificates and keys must be able to process these data which are actually strings.

There are many and varied reasons you would want to deal with string, as an array of bytes but each of these reasons would be fairly specialised.