Parsing through data...

I have a buffer from an RS232 component that will be full of strings and 2 - 4 Byte numbers. Whats the best way to parse through this data, I was going to check that the data is valid (255 bytes of it) and have a pointer to the buffer which I will increment as I go checking the values and feeding them into a structure.... But Im not sure if Im heading for the best technique?

Does anyone know of a good way of doing this or perhaps a good article on something similar?

Thanks in advance for any tips ;)

depends on the structure and how the sender put the package together. Is the buffer you received a complete immage of the structure? If yes, and the structure does not contain any c++ class objects (like std::string) then just memcpy the buffer into the structure.

The buffer is a complete image once all the data has been collected but I also need to verify this. The only types that are in the packet are bool, int and float and a few strings (no objects).

Im not exactly sure how Im going to tell the difference between many packets coming in and when they start / end.... They have a start and end charateur and the packets a fixed length so shouldnt be difficult.

Thanks Stober.

Another problem you might encounter is Endian order if the data is transferred from one type of computer to another, such as between MS-Windows and IBM AIX unix.

Yes, before memcpy'ing make sure byte ordering in the stream allows you to.

Both sides are little endian.

Thanks people.