How to serialize to char* using Google Protocol Buffers?

Question

I want to serialize my protocol buffer to a char*. Is this possible? I know one can serialize to file as per:

fstream output("/home/eamorr/test.bin", ios::out | ios::trunc | ios::binary); if (!address_book.SerializeToOstream(&output)) {   cerr << "Failed to write address book." << endl;   return -1; } 

But I'd like to serialize to a C-style char* for transmission across a network.

How to do this? Please bear in mind that I'm very new to C++.

Answer 1

That's easy:

size_t size = address_book.ByteSizeLong();  void *buffer = malloc(size); address_book.SerializeToArray(buffer, size); 

Check documentation of MessageLite class also, it's parent class of Message and it contains useful methods.