Using Binary Data Directly in CPP Source Files

[JSadleir]

Hi Coders If you have lots of data that you reference in an application (eg thousands of widget codes, prices and corresponding .bmp files), I gather it's possible to serialise/encode/write that data from ASCII into a binary file so that the data takes up much less space and can be accessed much more quickly by your application than if it is left in ASCII. Assuming you (1) do not want the actual data to be changed or added to after compilation by end users, but (2) you want your application to be able to quickly and efficiently reference individual items in the binary file, what do you think is the best way to include the binary file in a native Visual C++ Project? Is it possible to embed the binary file in the native Visual C++ project so that it in the application's core exe/dll without a separate external bin file? Could I do this with a cpp, lib or resource item that contains all the binary data? Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated. Regards Jeremy

[Stephen Hewitt]

JSadleir wrote:

what do you think is the best way to include the binary file in a native Visual C++ Project?

Add the binary data to the project as a resource then use the FindResource(Ex), LoadResource, LockResource and SizeofResource APIs to access the data. Steve

[JSadleir]

Thanks Steve - I'll give it a go - Regards Jeremy