According to the specification, there are currently 13 different types of tags:
Tag class | Superclass | ID | Payload |
---|---|---|---|
EndTag | Tag | 0 | None |
ByteTag | NumberTag | 1 | 1 byte / 8 bits, signed |
ShortTag | NumberTag | 2 | 2 bytes / 16 bits, signed, big endian |
IntTag | NumberTag | 3 | 4 bytes / 32 bits, signed, big endian |
LongTag | NumberTag | 4 | 8 bytes / 64 bits, signed, big endian |
FloatTag | NumberTag | 5 | 4 bytes / 32 bits, signed, big endian, IEEE 754-2008, binary32 |
DoubleTag | NumberTag | 6 | 8 bytes / 64 bits, signed, big endian, IEEE 754-2008, binary64 |
ByteArrayTag | ArrayTag | 7 | IntTag 's payload size, then size ByteTag 's payloads |
StringTag | Tag | 8 | ShortTag 's payload length, then a UTF-8 string with size length |
ListTag | Tag | 9 | ByteTag 's payload tagId, then IntTag ‘s payload size, then size tags’ payloads, all of type tagId |
CompoundTag | Tag | 10 | Fully formed tags, followed by an EndTag |
IntArrayTag | ArrayTag | 11 | IntTag 's payload size, then size IntTag 's payloads |
LongArrayTag | ArrayTag | 12 | IntTag 's payload size, then size LongTag 's payloads |
The EndTag
is only used to mark the end of a CompoundTag
in its serialized state or an empty ListTag
.
The maximum depth of the NBT structure is 512. If the depth exceeds this restriction during serialization, deserialization or String conversion, a MaxDepthReachedException
is thrown. This usually happens when a circular reference exists in the NBT structure. The NBT specification does not allow circular references, as there is no tag to represent this.
The following code snippet shows how to create a CompoundTag
:
CompoundTag ct = new CompoundTag(); ct.put("byte", new ByteTag((byte) 1)); ct.put("double", new DoubleTag(1.234)); ct.putString("string", "stringValue");
An example on how to use ListTag
:
ListTag<FloatTag> fl = new ListTag<>(); fl.add(new FloatTag(1.234f); fl.addFloat(5.678f);
There are several utility methods to make your life easier if you use this library.
NBTUtil.writeTag()
lets you write a Tag into a gzip compressed or uncompressed file in one line (not counting exception handling). Files are gzip compressed by default. Example usage:
NBTUtil.writeTag(tag, "filename.dat");
NBTUtil.readTag()
reads any file containing NBT data. No worry about compression, it will automatically uncompress gzip compressed files. Example usage:
Tag tag = NBTUtil.readTag("filename.dat");
Each tag can be converted into a JSON-like NBT String used in Minecraft commands. Example usage:
CompoundTag c = new CompoundTag(); c.putByte("blah", (byte) 5); c.putString("foo", "bär"); String s = c.toTagString(); //output: {blah:5b,foo:"bär"}
Interested in more advanced features, and the default NBT protocol just isn't enough? Simply create your own tags! There are 4 example classes in net.querz.nbt.custom
that show how to implement custom tags:
Class | ID | Description |
---|---|---|
ObjectTag | 90 | A wrapper tag that serializes and deserializes any object using the default java serialization. |
ShortArrayTag | 100 | In addition to the already existing ByteArrayTag , IntArrayTag and LongArrayTag . |
CharTag | 110 | Character (char) tag. |
StructTag | 120 | Similar to the ListTag , but with the ability to store multiple types. |
To be able to use a custom tag with deserialization, it needs to have a public no-args constructor and its id and class must be registered during runtime with TagFactory.registerCustomTag()
.