zone117x/z85e

High speed Z85 encoding library

This project implements the Z85 encoding standard as described in this rfc together with an extended version where you can encode bytes with no restriction on the length of the bytes (ie. it is not required to have a length of a multiple of 4). The library targets netstandard 1.1 and higher.

Goals

• Z85e uses the same output characters as Z85;
• Z85e encodes an input byte array (with a length multiple of 4) exactly the same as Z85;
• Z85e decodes an input string (with a length multiple of 5) exactly the same as Z85;
• Z85e should be as fast and cheap as possible. Yes, this is rather vague. Lets compare it with a base64 encoding decoding.

Branching model

This project uses GitFlow as branching model.

Nuget

The alpha releases can be found using this MyGet feed. In the feature these will probably be hosted at azure devops. Beta and final releases will be located at NuGet.

API

See DotNet APIs for the API.

Performance

• Performance version 1.0.0
• Performance version 1.1.0
• Performance version 1.2.0
• Performance current working version

Example encoding

Data and definitions are taken from the extended documentation of Z85.

Z85, and Z85e uses this representation for each base-85 value from zero to 84:

 0 -  9:  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 - 19:  a b c d e f g h i j
20 - 29:  k l m n o p q r s t
30 - 39:  u v w x y z A B C D
40 - 49:  E F G H I J K L M N
50 - 59:  O P Q R S T U V W X
60 - 69:  Y Z . - : + = ^ ! /
70 - 79:  * ? & < > ( ) [ ] {
80 - 84:  } @ % $ #

Example encoding Z85

Z85 encodes blocks of 4 bytes. From the original documentation we know that :

The following 8 bytes:

+------+------+------+------+  +------+------+------+------+
| 0x86 | 0x4F | 0xD2 | 0x6F |  | 0xB5 | 0x59 | 0xF7 | 0x5B |
+------+------+------+------+  +------+------+------+------+

should encode as the following 10 characters:

+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+ 
| H | e | l | l | o |  | W | o | r | l | d |
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+---+---+ 

Explanation of the calculations

For the first four bytes:

0x86 * 0xFF * 0xFF * 0xFF 
0x4F * 0xFF * 0xFF 
0xD2 * 0xFF
0x6F                        +
----------------------------
2253378159

For the first character:

2253378159 / (85 ^ 4) = 43 
2253378159 % (85 ^ 4) = 8751284

Looking at the table, you'll see that 43 maps to an 'H'. The remainder 8751284 is used for the second character:

8751284 / (85 ^ 3) = 14 
8751284 % (85 ^ 3) = 153534

Now, the 14 maps to an 'e'.

For the third character we use 153534:

153534 / (85 ^ 2) = 21 
153534 % (85 ^ 2) = 1809

The fourth character:

1809 / (85 ^ 1) = 21 
1809 % (85 ^ 1) = 24

And the last character:

24 / (85 ^ 0) = 24 
24 % (85 ^ 0) = 0

The following values are found:

+----+----+----+----+----+ 
| 43 | 14 | 21 | 21 | 24 | 
+----+----+----+----+----+ 

and these map to:

+---+---+---+---+---+ 
| H | e | l | l | o | 
+---+---+---+---+---+ 

Example encoding Z85e

The following 6 bytes:

+------+------+------+------+  +------+------+
| 0x86 | 0x4F | 0xD2 | 0x6F |  | 0x1C | 0xE6 |
+------+------+------+------+  +------+------+

should encode as the following 8 characters:

+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+
| H | e | l | l | o |  | 1 | 2 | 3 |
+---+---+---+---+---+  +---+---+---+

Explanation of the calculations

The first four bytes are encoded the same as using Z85. The last two bytes are encoded as follows

0x1C * 0xFF
0xE6                       +
----------------------------
7398

For the first character:

7398 / (85 ^ 2) = 1 
7398 % (85 ^ 2) = 173

Looking at the table, you'll see that 1 maps to an '1'. The remainder 173 is used for the second character:

For the second character:

173 / (85 ^ 1) = 2 
173 % (85 ^ 1) = 3

And the last character

173 / (85 ^ 0) = 3 
173 % (85 ^ 0) = 0

The following values are found:

+---+---+---+
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
+---+---+---+

and these map to:

+---+---+---+
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
+---+---+---+