1

For some reason beyond my control, I need to store encoded data in a string variable.

I know abi.encode and abi.decode usually work on bytes memory but I also believe that string memory can be casted to bytes memory.

Here is an example contract I use to debug in remix:

pragma solidity ^0.5.0;

contract Test
{
    function encode(uint256 a, string calldata b) external pure returns(string memory)
    {
        return string(abi.encode(a, b));
    }
    function decode(string calldata a) external pure returns(uint256, string memory)
    {
        return abi.decode(bytes(a), (uint256, string));
    }
}

It works great with some values. For example encode(42, "test") returns

\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000*\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000@\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0004test\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000

which can then be decoded back to 42, "test".

However, for some values, such as 255, "test", then I get a revert when trying to decode the encoded string.

Any idea how to solve that ? Is their no other way then to use bytes instead of string ?

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1 Answer 1

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3

I think I would focus on the testing methodology.

The contract looks okay to me.

I fiddled with it a little to test the original two functions and ended up with something that seems to work. It works for both examples, e.g. 255, "test".

I didn't find a case where it doesn't work. Admittedly, did not test very much. 

pragma solidity ^0.5.0;

contract Test
{
    function encode(uint a, string memory b) internal pure returns(string memory)
    {
        return string(abi.encode(a, b));
    }
    function decode(string memory a) internal pure returns(uint, string memory)
    {
        return abi.decode(bytes(a), (uint, string));
    }

    function test(uint a, string calldata b) external pure returns(uint, string memory) {
        string memory encoded = encode(a, b);
        return decode(encoded);
    }    
}

Hope it helps.

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3
  • it confirms that there is a possible string representation, but when I try to compute it offchain and pass it to a smart contract I can't manage to make it work. My usecase is trying to decode something that was passed as an argument, stored somewhere in a string and by a contract I don't control, and then read by my contract
    – Amxx
    Apr 4, 2019 at 20:53
  • Change the two internal functions to public so the client can use them. The advantage here is you are ensuring all clients and all languages will always have a way to convert that matches what the contract expects. Use the contract's pure functions to do offchain computations, and you shouldn't have a problem.
    – Rob Hitchens
    Apr 4, 2019 at 23:10
  • They are external, and I tried ... calling the encode sometimes cause revert (for example with 255, "test")
    – Amxx
    Apr 5, 2019 at 8:01

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