Representing the structure of a data format using a class-based representation

A method of operating a computing device comprising at least one processor and memory, the method comprising:

• with the at least one processor:
• receiving, from a data source, at least one class comprising at least one data member representing at least one data element of a data storage, wherein the at least one class is derived from at least one base class that allows accessing values of instances of the at least one data member at runtime;
• creating an instance of the at least one class comprising an instance of the at least one data member;
• and
• parsing, via the at least one base class, the instance of the at least one class to provide a representation of the instance of the at least one data member, wherein the representation comprises a layout of at least one item representing the at least one data element of the data storage.

A computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed on at least one processor in a computing device, implement a method comprising:

• with the at least one processor:
• receiving, from a data source, at least one class comprising at least one data member representing at least one data element of a data storage, wherein the at least one class is derived from at least one base class that allows accessing values of instances of the at least one data member;
• creating an instance of the class comprising an instance of the at least one data member;
• and
• parsing, via the base class, the instance of the class to provide a representation of the instance of the at least one data member, wherein the representation comprises information on a layout of the at least one data element of the data storage and at least one attribute of the at least one data element.