20.7.3 Event Data Fields (Event-Specific Information)

20.7.3.1 Event Data Field Notational Caveat

The structure of an event's data part depends on the event type:

• In v1 and v3, the event type entirely determines the data format

• In v4, interpretation of the data part depends on the event type in conjunction with information from the format description event. This is because v4 allows for an extra headers field, the size of which is defined in the format description event. In practice, the extra headers field currently is empty.

The data part of an event consists of a fixed-size part and a variable-size part. Either or both parts may be empty, depending on the event type. (For example, a STOP_EVENT consists only of the header part; the fixed and variable data parts are both empty.)

The size of the event data part is the event size (contained in the header) minus the header size. The size of the fixed data part is a function of the event type. The size of the variable data part is the event size minus the size of the header, minus the size of the fixed data part.

The following principles hold across all events in a binary log file:

• The fixed part of the event data is the same size for all events of a given type.

• The variable part of the event data can differ in size among events of a given type.

For details about the fixed and variable parts of event data for different events, see Event Data for Specific Event Types.