Safe list-to-string conversion script

Hello everyone, I made this pair of list-to-string and string-to-list functions. I thought they might be interesting mainly because the way the string is set up, it will always split into the same number of pieces -- it doesn't use separators, and it retains the types of the original list elements.

Well, have a look, may someone find it useful!

// list2string and string2list functions...
//		 For the safest transfers of lists with strings

// By Keknehv Psaltery, 1/12/06 -- Public domain, do whatever you wish (Although I'd prefer if I still get credit)

//Known limitations -- It doesn't preserve a small amount of the floating point data. 
//Of course, there is the memory limitation. (I could do some float trimming, but that would make it much slower)

//How it works:
//  Instead of using something like llParseString2List with an uncommon separator, these list-strings
//		actually have an index of where the strings are, and, as a bonus, it also preserves data types
//	The data structure of the string looks like this:
//	[index1][type1] [index2][type2] [index3][type3]...[indexN][typeN] [data1][data2][data3]

// So, if you had a list like this: [The, 1, <1, 5.3, 6>, dog], it would look like 
//		this (without quotation marks) when it passes through the list2string function:
// "00163001910020500503The1<1.000000, 5.300000, 6.000000>dog"
//  ====^====^====^====^---_------------------------------___
//  ind1|ind2|ind3|ind4|data1	data3					data4
//	 typ1 typ2 typ3 typ4 data2   
// This formatting allows for **any** conceivable data to be transferred.

string padToFour( string inString )	  //Outputs the string padded to four characters with spaces on the left
{												//( or cut to four characters -- pad("01234")="1234")
	//Note: this function uses a clever trick for efficiency
	integer inStringLength = llStringLength( inString );		//The length of the input string
	if ( inStringLength < 4 )
		return ( llGetSubString( "0000", 0, 3 - inStringLength ) + inString );
	else if ( inStringLength == 4 )
		return inString;
	else
		return llGetSubString( inString, inStringLength - 4, inStringLength );	
}

string list2String( list inList )		//Converts a list to a string -- with no possible chance of error
{
	string outputString = llDumpList2String( inList, "" );
	integer listLength = llGetListLength( inList );
	integer baseOffset = listLength * 4;
	integer lastOffset;
	string prefixString;	
	
	integer listElementNum;
	for ( listElementNum = 0 ; listElementNum < listLength ; ++listElementNum )
	{
		prefixString	+= padToFour( (string)( baseOffset + lastOffset ) ) 
						+ (string)llGetListEntryType( inList, listElementNum );
		lastOffset += llStringLength( llList2String( inList, listElementNum ) );
	}
	
	outputString = prefixString + outputString;
	return outputString;
}

list string2List( string inString )
{
	list outputList;
	integer baseOffset = (integer)llGetSubString( inString, 0, 3 );
	integer listLength = baseOffset / 5;
	
	integer elementLength;
	integer elementType;
	
	integer listElementNum;
	for ( listElementNum = 0 ; listElementNum < listLength ; ++listElementNum )
	{
		elementType = (integer)llGetSubString( inString, listElementNum * 5 + 4, listElementNum * 5 + 4 );
		elementLength = (integer)llGetSubString( inString, listElementNum * 5, listElementNum * 5 + 3 ) 
				- baseOffset;
		
		if 		( elementType == 1 )
			outputList += [ (integer)llGetSubString( inString, baseOffset, baseOffset + elementLength ) ];
		else if ( elementType == 2 )
			outputList += [ (float)llGetSubString( inString, baseOffset, baseOffset + elementLength ) ];
		else if ( elementType == 3 )
			outputList += [ llGetSubString( inString, baseOffset, baseOffset + elementLength ) ];
		else if ( elementType == 4 )
			outputList += [ (key)llGetSubString( inString, baseOffset, baseOffset + elementLength ) ];
		else if ( elementType == 5 )
			outputList += [ (vector)llGetSubString( inString, baseOffset, baseOffset + elementLength ) ];
		else if ( elementType == 6 )
			outputList += [ (rotation)llGetSubString( inString, baseOffset, baseOffset + elementLength ) ];
	}
	
	return outputList;
}

default
{
	touch_start( integer num )
	{
		list testList = [ "The", "red", "dog" ];
		llOwnerSay( "testList = [" + llDumpList2String( testList, ", " ) + "]" );
		string testList2String = list2String( testList );
		llOwnerSay( "testList2String = \"" + testList2String + "\"" );
		list reversedL2S = string2List( testList2String );
		llOwnerSay( "Reversed list = [" + llDumpList2String( testList, ", " ) + "]" );
	}
}