General Structure
The encoding assumes an octet (an eight-bit byte) where the most significant bit (MSB), also commonly known as the sign bit, is reserved to indicate whether another VLQ octet follows.
| 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| A | Bn | ||||||
If A is 0, then this is the last VLQ octet of the integer. If A is 1, then another VLQ octet follows.
B is a 7-bit number and n is the position of the VLQ octet where B0 is the least significant. The VLQ octets are arranged most significant first in a stream.
Read more about this topic: Variable-length Quantity
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or structure:
“An aristocratic culture does not advertise its emotions. In its forms of expression it is sober and reserved. Its general attitude is stoic.”
—Johan Huizinga (18721945)
“There is no such thing as a language, not if a language is anything like what many philosophers and linguists have supposed. There is therefore no such thing to be learned, mastered, or born with. We must give up the idea of a clearly defined shared structure which language-users acquire and then apply to cases.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)