de-serialize ASCII to struct - c++

Question

I have come up with the following structure to declare various formats if messages that are to be received from the network:
#include <stdint.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string.h>
template<int T>
struct uint
{
static uint<T> create(uint64_t value)
{
uint<T> r = {value};
return r;
}
uint(uint64_t value)
{
v = value;
}
uint()
{}
uint<T>& operator =(uint64_t value)
{
v = value;
return *this;
}
operator uint64_t() const
{
return (uint64_t)v;
}
unsigned long long v:T;
}__attribute__((packed));
example:
typedef uint<5> second_t;
suppose one of the message formats (which are auto-generated via some process) is like this:
struct seconds
{
char _type;
second_t _second;
} __attribute__((packed));
Now suppose I would like to populate an instance of the above messahe using a string:
int main()
{
seconds ii;
const char *i = "123456";
// memset, memcpy,sprintf... ??? what to use here?
std::cout << ii._type << " " << ii._second << std::endl;
}
Given a stream 123456, I expect the instance of the seconds (ii) structure to have char ii._type = '1' and integer ii._second = 23456. But I dont know how to do that. Do you have a clue how i can do that? and do you have any suggestion how to improve the basic structure?
thanks

Answer 1

You have a number of easier and more reliable options available that require almost no work.
check out google protocol buffers (platform independent message serialisation and deserialisation): https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/
or boost::serialization - (probably faster, but not platform-independant) http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_58_0/libs/serialization/doc/index.html