String vs Binary Data

• Save integer as string in file, steps involved -
  • Convert integer to string - Using itoa() function, which has an interesting optimization for two digit numbers - Commit, CodeRef.
  • Write string to file - Using WriteString function, which internals converts string to bytes. Then calls Write function to write bytes to file.
• Save integer as binary encoded data in file, steps involved -
  • Convert integer to binary encoded data - Using binary.LittleEndian.PutUint64 function, which converts integer to bytes.
  • Write binary encoded data to file - Using Write function to write bytes to file.

The string path has a extra step of converting integer to string first then to bytes, whereas the binary path makes that conversion to bytes in binary encoded form much quicker.

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