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C#

Send a 4-byte Length Prefix over a Socket

See more Socket/SSL/TLS Examples

Demonstrates Socket.SendCount, which sends a four-byte length prefix in network byte order. This is typically used to tell the peer how many bytes follow.

Background. A length-prefixed framing scheme sends the byte count of a message before the message body, so the receiver knows exactly how many bytes to read with a counted receive.

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C#
bool success = false;

Chilkat.Socket socket = new Chilkat.Socket();

//  Connect to the server using TLS.
bool bTls = true;
int maxWaitMs = 5000;
success = socket.Connect("example.com",5000,bTls,maxWaitMs);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(socket.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  Send a four-byte length prefix in network byte order.  A common framing pattern is to send the
//  number of bytes in a message before the message itself, so the peer knows exactly how many bytes
//  to read.
int messageLength = 512;
success = socket.SendCount(messageLength);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(socket.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

Debug.WriteLine("Length prefix sent.");