Using varint for encoding integers inside flatbuffers

[Zarian Waheed]

Just a quick question:

Has there been any thought on using varint encoding (https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding#varints) for encoding integers inside flatbuffers?

I know we can't use that for structs (because everything needs to be of fixed size) but in table it could result in significant size savings. Additionally all the string lengths can be encoded as varint as well which would reduce the size further.

Thanks,

Zarian.

[Wouter van Oortmerssen]

It would be possible to support varints.

The reason we don't have them is that decoding them would happen on each access, as opposed to just once in Protocol Buffers. They don't fit the design of FlatBuffers quite as well.

That said, in many uses of FlatBuffers you might end up accessing the field only once anyway, and/or space savings are more important.

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