String Table Format

In a string table, all strings used in a structure are stored at the end of the structure in packed format. The structure includes fields that specify the offsets from the beginning of the string table to the individual strings. An example follows:

typedef struct
{
      INT     iWidgetNumber;     /* the widget number */
      USHORT  offszWidgetName;   /* an offset to a string
                                    in <rgchStrTab>*/
      USHORT  offszWidgetDesc;   /* an offset to a string
                                    in <rgchStrTab> */
      INT     iQuantity;         /* how many widgets */
      CHAR    rgchStrTab[1];     /* string table (allocate
                                              as large as needed) */
}     WIDGET;

If multiple chunks within the file need to reference variable-length strings, you can store the strings in a single chunk that acts as a string table. The chunks that refer to the strings contain offsets relative to the beginning of the data part of the string table chunk.