Could you please explain me how do I read properly from an NSInputStream?
I couldn't understand what is UnsafePointer and what's the use of it (also for UnsafeArray).
The NSInputStream read function gets an CMutablePointer which can be filled with an UnsafePointer object.
It's a real mess comparing to Java's Streams.
What would you recommend ?
Thank you!
I have figured it out myself.
Look at this simple code:
let data: NSData = "Jonathan Yaniv.".dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding, allowLossyConversion: true)
let stream: NSInputStream = NSInputStream(data: data)
var buffer = [UInt8](count: 8, repeatedValue: 0)
stream.open()
if stream.hasBytesAvailable {
let result :Int = stream.read(&buffer, maxLength: buffer.count)
}
// result = 8 -- because of the size of the buffer.
// buffer contains the first 8 bytes repreenting the word "Jonathan"
Explanation: The read method signature: stream.read(<#buffer: UnsafeMutablePointer#>, maxLength: <#Int#>)
It gets a UnsafeMutablePointer as a first parameter, which means the method expects to get a POINTER to an array of type UInt8 - NOT the array itself
Therefore, we add the & notation before the name of the buffer variable. &buffer == the pointer to the UInt8 array object named buffer.