The following table summarizes the elements of the RIFF notation required for representing sample RIFF files:
<ckID> (<ckData>) |
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The chunk with ID <ckID> and data <ckData>. The <ckID> field is a four-character code that may be enclosed by single quotes for emphasis. |
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For example, the following notation describes a “RIFF” chunk with a form type of “QRST.” The data portion of this chunk contains a “FOO” subchunk. |
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RIFF('QRST' FOO(17 23)) |
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The following example describes an “ICOP” chunk containing the string “Copyright Encyclopedia International.”: |
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'ICOP' ("Copyright Encyclopedia International."Z) |
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<number>[<modifier>] |
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A number consisting of an optional sign (+ or -) followed by one or more digits and modified by the optional <modifier>. Valid <modifier> values follow: |
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<modifier> |
Meaning |
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none |
16-bit number in decimal format |
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H |
16-bit number in hexadecimal format |
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C |
8-bit number in decimal format |
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CH |
8-bit number in hexadecimal format |
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L |
32-bit number in decimal format |
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LH |
32-bit number in hexadecimal format |
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Several examples follow: |
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0 65535 -1 0L 4a3c89HL -1C 21HC |
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Note that -1 and 65535 represent the same value. The application reading this file must know whether to interpret the number as signed or unsigned. |
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'<chars>' |
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A four-character code (32-bit quantity) consisting of a sequence of zero to four ASCII characters (<chars>) in the given order. If <chars> is less than four characters long, it is implicitly padded on the right with blanks. Two single quotes is equivalent to four blanks. Examples follow. |
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'RIFF' 'xyz' '' |
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<chars> can include escape sequences, which are combinations of characters introduced by a backslash (\) used to represent other characters. Escape sequences are listed in the following section. |
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"<string>"[<modifier>] |
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The sequence of ASCII characters contained in <string> and modified by the optional modifier <modifier>. The quoted text can include any of the escape sequences listed in the following section. Valid <modifier> values follow: |
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<modifier> |
Meaning |
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none |
No NULL terminator or size prefix. |
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Z |
String is NULL-terminated |
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B |
String has an 8-bit (byte) size prefix |
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W |
String has a 16-bit (word) size prefix |
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BZ |
String has a byte-size prefix and is NULL-terminated |
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WZ |
String has a word-size prefix and is NULL-terminated |