# Method Stdio.Buffer()->read_hstring()

Method read_hstring

  ``string(8bit)` read_hstring(`int(0..)` `n`, `void`|`int` `offset`)`

Description

  Identical in functionality to read(`read_number`(`n`)) but faster.

  Read a network byte order number of size n*8 bits, then return the indicated number of bytes as a string.

  `offset` is substracted from the specified length prior to reading the string. Typical usage involves substracting `n` to account for the room used by the size.

  If there is not enough data available return 0.

  Note that pike string can not be longer than 0x7fffffff bytes (~2Gb).