perl-Bit-Vector
A bit vector is just an array of bits; subsets of bits within the bytes have some meaning. That allows more compact storage for certain types of data. For example, if you only needed boolean on-off values, you can store eight values in one byte. If your values require more than byte sized bits, the bits you require can still be packed more efficiently; if you need 10 bits, you can pack eight of those in an ten byte string (rather than the 16 or 32 bytes you might otherwise use).
Current version: 7.2
History