EncDotNet.Iso8211 0.4.0

EncDotNet.Iso8211

A .NET 10 parser for the ISO/IEC 8211 binary container format — the underlying encoding used by IHO S-57 electronic navigational charts, as well as other geospatial and data exchange standards.

Features

• Parse any ISO 8211 file (not limited to S-57 charts)
• Read the Data Descriptive Record (DDR) to discover field tags, subfield names, and data types
• Decode data records and iterate their fields and subfield values
• Low-allocation ref struct reader for streaming large files
• Immutable record types for parsed data (thread-safe, LINQ-friendly)

Installation

dotnet add package EncDotNet.Iso8211

Quick Start

using EncDotNet.Iso8211;

// Parse a file into an in-memory document
var document = Iso8211DocumentReader.ReadFromFile("chart.000");

// Read the DDR (schema) — defines field tags, subfield names, and data types
var ddr = Iso8211DataDescriptiveRecordReader.Read(document.DataDescriptiveRecord!);

// Iterate data records
foreach (var record in document.DataRecords)
{
    foreach (var field in record.Fields)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Field tag: {field.Tag}  ({field.Data.Length} bytes)");

        // Use the DDR field definition to decode subfields
        var fieldDef = ddr.GetFieldDefinition(field.Tag);
        if (fieldDef is not null)
        {
            var reader = new Iso8211FieldReader(fieldDef, field.Data);

            foreach (var subfieldDef in fieldDef.SubfieldDefinitions)
            {
                if (reader.TryGetSubfield<string>(subfieldDef.Name, out var value))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine($"  {subfieldDef.Name} = {value}");
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Key Types

Background

ISO/IEC 8211 is a general-purpose binary format for encoding structured data into self-describing files. Each file begins with a Data Descriptive Record (DDR) that defines the schema, followed by one or more data records conforming to that schema.

The format is used by IHO S-57 for encoding electronic navigational charts, but it is not specific to maritime data — any domain that needs a compact, self-describing binary container can use ISO 8211.

Related Packages

• EncDotNet.S57 — S-57 domain model built on top of this parser

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.