|
| 1 | +# Named Binary Tag (NBT) |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +NBT is a format introduced in the earliest days of Minecraft, written by Notch himself. It is widely used throughout the Minecraft codebase for data storage. |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +## Specification |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +The NBT spec is similar to the JSON spec, with a few differences: |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +- Distinct types for bytes, shorts, longs and floats exist, suffixed by `b`, `s`, `l` and `f`, respectively, similar to how they would be represented in Java code. |
| 10 | + - Doubles may also be suffixed with `d`, but this is not required, similar to Java code. The optional `i` suffix available in Java for integers is not permitted. |
| 11 | + - The suffixes are not case-sensitive. So for example, `64b` is the same as `64B`, and `0.5F` is the same as `0.5f`. |
| 12 | +- Booleans do not exist, they are instead represented by bytes. `true` becomes `1b`, `false` becomes `0b`. |
| 13 | + - The current implementation treats all non-zero values as `true`, so `2b` would be treated as `true` as well. |
| 14 | +- There is no `null` equivalent in NBT. |
| 15 | +- Quotes around keys are optional. So a JSON property `"duration": 20` can become both `duration: 20` and `"duration": 20` in NBT. |
| 16 | +- What is known in JSON as a sub-object is known in NBT as a **compound tag** (or just compound). |
| 17 | +- NBT lists cannot mix and match types, unlike in JSON. The list type is determined by the first element, or defined in code. |
| 18 | + - However, lists of lists can mix and match different list types. So a list of two lists, where the first one is a list of strings and the second one is a list of bytes, is allowed. |
| 19 | +- There are special **array** types that are different from lists, but follow their scheme of containing elements in square brackets. There are three array types: |
| 20 | + - Byte arrays, denoted by a `B;` at the beginning of the array. Example: `[B;0b,30b]` |
| 21 | + - Integer arrays, denoted by a `I;` at the beginning of the array. Example: `[I;0,-300]` |
| 22 | + - Long arrays, denoted by an `L;` at the beginning of the array. Example: `[L;0l,240l]` |
| 23 | +- Trailing commas in lists, arrays and compound tags are allowed. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +## NBT Files |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +Minecraft uses `.nbt` files extensively, for example for structure files in [datapacks][datapack]. Region files (`.mca`) that contain the contents of a region (i.e. a collection of chunks), as well as the various `.dat` files used in different places by the game, are NBT files as well. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +NBT files are typically compressed with GZip. As such, they are binary files and cannot be edited directly. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +## NBT in Code |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +Like in JSON, all NBT objects are children of an enclosing object. So let's create one: |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +```java |
| 36 | +CompoundTag tag = new CompoundTag(); |
| 37 | +``` |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +We can now put our data into that tag: |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +```java |
| 42 | +tag.putInt("Color", 0xffffff); |
| 43 | +tag.putString("Level", "minecraft:overworld"); |
| 44 | +tag.putDouble("IAmRunningOutOfIdeasForNamesHere", 1d); |
| 45 | +``` |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +Several helpers exist here, for example, `putIntArray` also has a convenience method that takes a `List<Integer>` in addition to the standard variant that takes an `int[]`. |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +Of course, we can also get values from that tag: |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +```java |
| 52 | +int color = tag.getInt("Color"); |
| 53 | +String level = tag.getString("Level"); |
| 54 | +double d = tag.getDouble("IAmRunningOutOfIdeasForNamesHere"); |
| 55 | +``` |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +Number types will return 0 if absent. Strings will return `""` if absent. More complex types (lists, arrays, compounds) will throw an exception if absent. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +As such, we want to safeguard by checking if a tag element exists: |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +```java |
| 62 | +boolean hasColor = tag.contains("Color"); |
| 63 | +boolean hasColorMoreExplicitly = tag.contains("Color", Tag.TAG_INT); |
| 64 | +``` |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +The `TAG_INT` constant is defined in `Tag`, which is the super interface for all tag types. Most tag types besides `CompoundTag` are mostly internal, for example `ByteTag` or `StringTag`, though the direct `CompoundTag#get` and `#put` methods can work with them if you ever stumble across some. |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +There is one obvious exception, though: `ListTag`s. Working with these is special because when getting a list tag through `CompoundTag#getList`, you must also specify the list type. So getting a list of strings, for example, would work like this: |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +```java |
| 71 | +ListTag list = tag.getList("SomeListHere", Tag.TAG_STRING); |
| 72 | +``` |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +Similarly, when creating a `ListTag`, you must also specify the list type during creation: |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +```java |
| 77 | +ListTag list = new ListTag(List.of("Value1", "Value2"), Tag.TAG_STRING); |
| 78 | +``` |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +Finally, working with `CompoundTag`s inside other `CompoundTag`s directly utilizes `CompoundTag#get` and `#put`: |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +```java |
| 83 | +tag.put("Tag", new CompoundTag()); |
| 84 | +tag.get("Tag"); |
| 85 | +``` |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +## Usages of NBT |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +NBT is used in a lot of places in Minecraft. Some of the most common examples include [`ItemStack`][itemstack]s, [`BlockEntity`][blockentity]s and `Entity`s. |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +## See Also |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +- [NBT Format on the Minecraft Wiki][nbtwiki] |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +[blockentity]: ../blockentities/index.md |
| 96 | +[datapack]: ../resources/server/index.md |
| 97 | +[itemstack]: ../items/index.md#itemstacks |
| 98 | +[nbtwiki]: https://minecraft.wiki/w/NBT_format |
0 commit comments