Thread: Sockets and buffer size

I'm writing a C++ app that uses sockets and I have no problem sending an recieving, but am having trouble separating the differnt types of messages i'm sending.

I have several classes from which I need to send data using overloaded stream operators.

when I say

Code:

socket << myObject;
...
operator<<(Socket &socket, myObject mo) {
	socket << mo.myInt;		// 0
	socket << mo.myString;		// "hi world"
}

I recieve this: "0hi world", but I want to recieve "0", then "hi world".

Is there any way to force the sockets to read and write in sync? without encoding value delimiters or forceing fixed-width data.

I was thinking encoding delimiters may be more efficient at least on the per-object transmissions, but there will still be a point when I need to force read and write to sync between sending objects. (this is also multi-threaded with lots of user input jumping around)

fixed-width data is out of the question becase there are so many types of clasess with so many types of data that need to be sent.

Thanks!

Thanks. I will probably use some kind of encoding to format each object, but I am still concerned that more than one object will read/write at a time.

There should be some way to signal the buffer dynamically, rather than specifying by fixed width.

The problem is I dont know these sockets too well. And I dont know if its being buffered on the sending or recieving end. Is there somthing I can set on the socket for this?

I've looked through the <sys/socket.h> header and around on Google, but I couldn't find anything to describe in detail what i'm looking for.

Any suggestions?