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This module provides several functions that can encode and decode a string. It also has a function called partition for designing faster algorithms. For sample usage of this module, z_service.py provides example code.

Python, 61 lines
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'''Module for string manipulation.

This module provides several functions that
can encode, decode, and convert strings.'''

__version__ = 1.3

################################################################################

def string_code(string):
    'Convert from string to code.'
    return number_code(string_number(string))

def code_string(code):
    'Convert from code to string.'
    return number_string(code_number(code))

def string_number(string):
    'Convert from string to number.'
    number = 1L
    for character in string:
        number <<= 8
        number += ord(character)
    return number

def number_code(number):
    'Convert from number to code.'
    code = ''
    while number:
        code = chr(number % 255 + 1) + code
        number /= 255
    return code

def code_number(code):
    'Convert from code to number.'
    number = 0L
    for character in code:
        number *= 255
        number += ord(character) - 1
    return number

def number_string(number):
    'Convert from number to string.'
    string = ''
    while number > 1:
        string = chr(number & 0xFF) + string
        number >>= 8
    return string

def partition(string, size):
    'Partitions a string into substrings.'
    for index in range(0, len(string), size):
        yield string[index:index+size]

################################################################################

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import sys
    print 'Content-Type: text/plain'
    print
    print file(sys.argv[0]).read()

This recipe used an algorithm that may be difficult to replicate in some languages, but the approach is rather unique in how information is encoded. The general idea behind the procedure is to convert the text into a number and then rewrite it in a different base. Strings can be thought of as base 256 numbers and can be stored as such using long numbers. Converting those numbers into a lower base is as simple as some modular arithmetic and divition. What results is a string that can be very hard to figure out for people trying to backward-engineer the encoding.