QUdpSocket Class Reference
^{[QtNetwork module]}

Detailed Description

The QUdpSocket class provides a UDP socket.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a lightweight, unreliable, datagram-oriented, connectionless protocol. It can be used when reliability isn't important. QUdpSocket is a subclass of QAbstractSocket that allows you to send and receive UDP datagrams.

The most common way to use this class is to bind to an address and port using bind(), then call writeDatagram() and readDatagram() to transfer data.

The socket emits the bytesWritten() signal every time a datagram is written to the network. If you just want to send datagrams, you don't need to call bind().

The readyRead() signal is emitted whenever datagrams arrive. In that case, hasPendingDatagrams() returns true. Call pendingDatagramSize() to obtain the size of the first pending datagram, and readDatagram() to read it.

Example:

    void Server::initSocket()
    {
        udpSocket = new QUdpSocket(this);
        udpSocket->bind(QHostAddress::LocalHost, 7755);

        connect(udpSocket, SIGNAL(readyRead()),
                this, SLOT(readPendingDatagrams()));
    }

    void Server::readPendingDatagrams()
    {
        while (udpSocket->hasPendingDatagrams()) {
            QByteArray datagram;
            datagram.resize(udpSocket->pendingDatagramSize());
            QHostAddress sender;
            quint16 senderPort;

            udpSocket->readDatagram(datagram.data(), datagram.size(),
                                    &sender, &senderPort);

            processTheDatagram(datagram);
        }
    }

With QUdpSocket, you can also establish a virtual connection to a UDP server using connectToHost() and then use read() and write() to exchange datagrams without specifying the receiver for each datagram.

The Broadcast Sender and Broadcast Receiver examples illustrate how to use QUdpSocket in applications.

See also QTcpSocket.

Member Type Documentation

enum QUdpSocket::BindFlag
flags QUdpSocket::BindMode

This enum describes the different flags you can pass to modify the behavior of QUdpSocket::bind().

This enum was introduced in Qt 4.1.

The BindMode type is a typedef for QFlags<BindFlag>. It stores an OR combination of BindFlag values.

Member Function Documentation

QUdpSocket::QUdpSocket ( QObject * parent = 0 )

Creates a QUdpSocket object.

parent is passed to the QObject constructor.

See also socketType().

QUdpSocket::~QUdpSocket ()   [virtual]

Destroys the socket, closing the connection if necessary.

See also close().

bool QUdpSocket::bind ( const QHostAddress & address, quint16 port )

Binds this socket to the address address and the port port. When bound, the signal readyRead() is emitted whenever a UDP datagram arrives on the specified address and port. This function is useful to write UDP servers.

On success, the functions returns true and the socket enters BoundState; otherwise it returns false.

The socket is bound using the DefaultForPlatform BindMode.

See also readDatagram().

bool QUdpSocket::bind ( const QHostAddress & address, quint16 port, BindMode mode )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Binds to address on port port, using the BindMode mode.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.1.

bool QUdpSocket::bind ( quint16 port = 0 )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Binds to QHostAddress:Any on port port.

bool QUdpSocket::bind ( quint16 port, BindMode mode )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Binds to QHostAddress:Any on port port, using the BindMode mode.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.1.

bool QUdpSocket::hasPendingDatagrams () const

Returns true if at least one datagram is waiting to be read; otherwise returns false.

See also pendingDatagramSize() and readDatagram().

qint64 QUdpSocket::pendingDatagramSize () const

Returns the size of the first pending UDP datagram. If there is no datagram available, this function returns -1.

See also hasPendingDatagrams() and readDatagram().

qint64 QUdpSocket::readDatagram ( char * data, qint64 maxSize, QHostAddress * address = 0, quint16 * port = 0 )

Receives a datagram no larger than maxSize bytes and stores it in data. The sender's host address and port is stored in *address and *port (unless the pointers are 0).

Returns the size of the datagram on success; otherwise returns -1.

If maxSize is too small, the rest of the datagram will be lost. To avoid loss of data, call pendingDatagramSize() to determine the size of the pending datagram before attempting to read it. If maxSize is 0, the datagram will be discarded.

See also writeDatagram(), hasPendingDatagrams(), and pendingDatagramSize().

qint64 QUdpSocket::writeDatagram ( const char * data, qint64 size, const QHostAddress & address, quint16 port )

Sends the datagram at data of size size to the host address address at port port. Returns the number of bytes sent on success; otherwise returns -1.

Datagrams are always written as one block. The maximum size of a datagram is highly platform-dependent, but can be as low as 8192 bytes. If the datagram is too large, this function will return -1 and error() will return DatagramTooLargeError.

Sending datagrams larger than 512 bytes is in general disadvised, as even if they are sent successfully, they are likely to be fragmented by the IP layer before arriving at their final destination.

See also readDatagram().

qint64 QUdpSocket::writeDatagram ( const QByteArray & datagram, const QHostAddress & host, quint16 port )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Sends the datagram datagram to the host address host and at port port.