VLQ的介绍

本文来介绍一下VLQ（variable-length quantity)

Wiki：Variable-length quantity

用变长字节数组来对整形进行编码，极大提高存储效率。

其实，这样的优点也被应用到了protobuf中，所以才有较高的序列化效率。

Varints in protobuf

具体实现代码如下：

package vlq

import (
	"math"
	"math/bits"
)

// DecodeVarint takes a variable length VLQ based integer and
// decodes it into a 32 bit integer.
func DecodeVarint(input []byte) (uint32, error) {
	const lastBitSet = 0x80 // 1000 0000

	var d uint32
	var bitPos int

	for i := len(input) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
		n := uint8(input[i])

		// Process the first 7 bits and ignore the 8th.
		for checkBit := 0; checkBit < 7; checkBit++ {

			// Rotate the last bit off and move it to the back.
			// Before: 0000 0001
			// After:  1000 0000
			n = bits.RotateLeft8(n, -1)

			// Calculate based on only those 1 bits that were rotated.
			// Convert the bitPos to base 10.
			if n >= lastBitSet {
				switch {
				case bitPos == 0:
					d++
				default:
					base10 := math.Pow(2, float64(bitPos))
					d += uint32(base10)
				}
			}

			// Move the bit position.
			bitPos++
		}
	}

	return d, nil
}

// EncodeVarint takes a 32 bit integer and encodes it into
// a variable length VLQ based integer.
func EncodeVarint(n uint32) []byte {
	const maxBytes = 4
	const eightBitSet = 0x80      // 1000 0000
	const lastBitSet = 0x80000000 // 1000 0000 0000 0000

	encoded := make([]byte, maxBytes)

	for bytePos := maxBytes - 1; bytePos >= 0; bytePos-- {
		var d uint8

		// Process the next 7 bits.
		for checkBit := 0; checkBit < 7; checkBit++ {

			// Rotate the last bit off and move it to the back.
			// Before: 0000 0000 0000 0001
			// After:  1000 0000 0000 0000
			n = bits.RotateLeft32(n, -1)

			// Calculate based on only those 1 bits that were
			// rotated. Convert the bit position to base 10.
			if n >= lastBitSet {
				switch {
				case checkBit == 0:
					d++
				default:
					base10 := math.Pow(2, float64(checkBit))
					d += uint8(base10)
				}
			}
		}

		// These values need the 8th bit to be set as 1.
		if bytePos < 3 {
			d += eightBitSet
		}

		// Store the value in reserve order.
		encoded[bytePos] = d
	}

	// Remove leading zero values by finding values that only
	// have their eight bit set.
	for bytePos, b := range encoded {
		if b == eightBitSet {
			continue
		}
		encoded = encoded[bytePos:]
		break
	}

	return encoded
}

在此抛砖引玉，有兴趣的同学，可以自行研究。