JaeHyoLee's solution to Variable Length Quantity on the Lua track

Instructions

Test suite

Solution

Implement variable length quantity encoding and decoding.

The goal of this exercise is to implement VLQ encoding/decoding.

In short, the goal of this encoding is to encode integer values in a way that would save bytes. Only the first 7 bits of each byte is significant (right-justified; sort of like an ASCII byte). So, if you have a 32-bit value, you have to unpack it into a series of 7-bit bytes. Of course, you will have a variable number of bytes depending upon your integer. To indicate which is the last byte of the series, you leave bit #7 clear. In all of the preceding bytes, you set bit #7.

So, if an integer is between 0-127, it can be represented as one byte. Although VLQ can deal with numbers of arbitrary sizes, for this exercise we will restrict ourselves to only numbers that fit in a 32-bit unsigned integer. Here are examples of integers as 32-bit values, and the variable length quantities that they translate to:

 NUMBER        VARIABLE QUANTITY
00000000              00
00000040              40
0000007F              7F
00000080             81 00
00002000             C0 00
00003FFF             FF 7F
00004000           81 80 00
00100000           C0 80 00
001FFFFF           FF FF 7F
00200000          81 80 80 00
08000000          C0 80 80 00
0FFFFFFF          FF FF FF 7F

Running the tests

To run the tests, run the command busted from within the exercise directory.

Further information

For more detailed information about the Lua track, including how to get help if you're having trouble, please visit the exercism.io Lua language page.

Source

A poor Splice developer having to implement MIDI encoding/decoding. https://splice.com

Submitting Incomplete Solutions

It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.

variable-length-quantity_spec.lua

local vlq = require 'variable-length-quantity'

describe('variable-length-quantity', function()
  it('should decode single bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x00 }, vlq.decode({ 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x40 }, vlq.decode({ 0x40 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x7f }, vlq.decode({ 0x7f }))
  end)

  it('should decode double bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x80 }, vlq.decode({ 0x81, 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x2000 }, vlq.decode({ 0xc0, 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x3fff }, vlq.decode({ 0xff, 0x7f }))
  end)

  it('should decode triple bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x4000 }, vlq.decode({ 0x81, 0x80, 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x100000 }, vlq.decode({ 0xc0, 0x80, 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x1fffff }, vlq.decode({ 0xff, 0xff, 0x7f }))
  end)

  it('should decode quadruple bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x200000 }, vlq.decode({ 0x81, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x08000000 }, vlq.decode({ 0xc0, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x0fffffff }, vlq.decode({ 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x7f }))
  end)

  it('should decode multiple values', function()
    assert.are.same(
      { 0x2000, 0x123456, 0x0fffffff, 0x00, 0x3fff, 0x4000 },
      vlq.decode({ 0xc0, 0x00, 0xc8, 0xe8, 0x56, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x7f, 0x00, 0xff, 0x7f, 0x81, 0x80, 0x00 })
    )
  end)

  it('should encode single bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x00 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x40 }, vlq.encode({ 0x40 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x7f }, vlq.encode({ 0x7f }))
  end)

  it('should encode double bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x81, 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x80 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0xc0, 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x2000 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0xff, 0x7f }, vlq.encode({ 0x3fff }))
  end)

  it('should encode triple bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x81, 0x80, 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x4000 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0xc0, 0x80, 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x100000 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0xff, 0xff, 0x7f }, vlq.encode({ 0x1fffff }))
  end)

  it('should encode quadruple bytes', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x81, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x200000 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0xc0, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00 }, vlq.encode({ 0x08000000 }))
    assert.are.same({ 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x7f }, vlq.encode({ 0x0fffffff }))
  end)

  it('should encode multiple values', function()
    assert.are.same({ 0x40, 0x7f }, vlq.encode({ 0x40, 0x7f }))
    assert.are.same({ 0x81, 0x80, 0x00, 0xc8, 0xe8, 0x56 }, vlq.encode({ 0x4000, 0x123456 }))
    assert.are.same(
      { 0xc0, 0x00, 0xc8, 0xe8, 0x56, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x7f, 0x00, 0xff, 0x7f, 0x81, 0x80, 0x00 },
      vlq.encode({ 0x2000, 0x123456, 0x0fffffff, 0x00, 0x3fff, 0x4000 })
    )
  end)

  it('should raise an error when decoding an incomplete byte sequence', function()
    assert.has.error(function()
      vlq.decode({ 0x81, 0x00, 0x80 })
    end, 'incomplete byte sequence')
  end)
end)

local base = 2^7

local function decode_worker(data, decoded)
 
  local next_stream_following = data//base
  table.insert(decoded, data%base)
 
  if next_stream_following == 1 then return false
  else return true end
  
end

local function decode(input)
  
  local output = {}
  local decoded = {}
  local end_of_stream
  
  for i=1, #input do
    
    end_of_stream = decode_worker(input[i], decoded)
  
    if end_of_stream then
      
      local decoded_value = 0
      
      for j=0, #decoded-1 do
        decoded_value = decoded_value + decoded[#decoded -j]*base^j
      end 
      
      table.insert(output, decoded_value) decoded = {} 
    end
    
  end
  
  if end_of_stream ~= true then error('incomplete byte sequence') end
  
  return output
end


local function encode_worker(input, ith, output)
  
  if ith == 1 then table.insert(output, input%base)
  else table.insert(output, (input%base + base)) end
  
  local next_input = input//base
  
  if next_input >= 1 then encode_worker(next_input, ith+1, output) end
end

local function encode(input)
  local output = {}
  
  for i=1, #input do
    
    local encoded = {}
    encode_worker(input[i], 1, encoded)
    
    for j=#encoded, 1, -1 do
      table.insert(output, encoded[j])
    end
    
  end
  return output
end

return {
  encode = encode,
  decode = decode
}

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JaeHyoLee's solution

to Variable Length Quantity in the Lua Track