Files
rippled/include/xrpl/protocol
Pratik Mankawde 1738a69619 refactor: Delete SecretKey compare op from library and move it to tests module (#6503)
This change deletes the `SecretKey` equality/inequality operators from the public library header and moves the comparison logic into test-only code.

Specifically, the `operator==` and `operator!=` free functions on `SecretKey` have been removed from `include/xrpl/protocol/SecretKey.h` and have been replaced with explicitly deleted member functions to prevent accidental use in production code. A named `test::equal()` helper has also been added in `src/test/unit_test/utils.h` for test assertions that need to compare secret keys.
2026-03-16 10:55:12 +00:00
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protocol

Classes and functions for handling data and values associated with the XRP Ledger protocol.

Serialized Objects

Objects transmitted over the network must be serialized into a canonical format. The prefix "ST" refers to classes that deal with the serialized format.

The term "Tx" or "tx" is an abbreviation for "Transaction", a commonly occurring object type.

Optional Fields

Our serialized fields have some "type magic" to make optional fields easier to read:

  • The operation x[sfFoo] means "return the value of 'Foo' if it exists, or the default value if it doesn't."
  • The operation x[~sfFoo] means "return the value of 'Foo' if it exists, or nothing if it doesn't." This usage of the tilde/bitwise NOT operator is not standard outside of the rippled codebase.
    • As a consequence of this, x[~sfFoo] = y[~sfFoo] assigns the value of Foo from y to x, including omitting Foo from x if it doesn't exist in y.

Typically, for things that are guaranteed to exist, you use x[sfFoo] and avoid having to deal with a container that may or may not hold a value. For things not guaranteed to exist, you use x[~sfFoo] because you want such a container. It avoids having to look something up twice, once just to see if it exists and a second time to get/set its value. (Real example)

The source of this "type magic" is in SField.h.