byte_search #

High-performance byte searching utilities for Uint8List.

This package provides low-allocation primitives for searching and scanning byte data without converting to String.

It is designed for performance-critical workloads such as log parsing, binary protocol processing, and large file scanning—especially when you perform millions of searches and most are rejects.

Related packages #

• byte_search_io: disk-backed scanning utilities built on RandomAccessFile (chunked reading, record extraction, and binary search over sorted files).
• byte_search_io re-exports byte_search, so for file-based workflows you can use a single import: import 'package:byte_search_io/byte_search_io.dart'; (Requires dart:io, so it does not work on the web.)

Features #

BytePattern #

A reusable, Horspool-style compiled byte matcher optimized for high-reject workloads.

• no string allocation
• no allocations on the hot path
• supports searching within a slice via start / end
• immutable and reusable across searches

ByteSet #

A precompiled 256-entry lookup table for constant-time byte classification.

• O(1) membership checks
• useful for delimiter detection and byte-class scanning

Uint8List extensions #

Low-level helpers exposed as extension methods on Uint8List:

• Uint8List.indexOfByte
• Uint8List.indexOfAnyByte
• Uint8List.indexOfByteNotIn
• Uint8List.startsWithBytes
• Uint8List.endsWithBytes
• Uint8List.containsInOrder
• Uint8List.subView

All APIs operate directly on Uint8List via extension methods and are allocation-free on the hot path.

Installation #

Add to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  byte_search: ^0.1.0