Conflicting definitions of String/CharArray in the Spec Part 6 and Part 5 Appendix E, as well as inconsequent usage of CharArray v.s. String in Opc.Ua.Types.bsd.xml. Perhaps should the later file use type String in place of CharArray for all fields? In detail:

From the Spec part 6 (1.04 RC and 1.03):

5.2.2.4 String

All String values are encoded as a sequence of UTF8 characters without a null terminator and preceded by the length in bytes.
The length in bytes is encoded as Int32. A value of −1 is used to indicate a ‘null’ string.

No mention of CharArray. WideString or WideCharArray.

However, from the spec part 5:

E.3 Standard Type Descriptions

• String: A null terminated sequence of UTF-8 characters.
• CharArray: A sequence of UTF-8 characters preceded by the number of characters.

If String in Part 6 was meant to be CharArray notice the difference between "length in bytes" v.s. "number of characters", as that matters quite a bit for UTF-8... (edited)

For more fun, the XML type specification (https://opcfoundation.org/UA/schemas/1.03/Opc.Ua.Types.bsd.xml) mentions both CharArray and String as field types for various "Structured Types". E.g. in DiagnosticInfo the "AdditionalInfo" field is a "String" according to te Spec part 6, but a "CharArray" according to "Opc.Ua.Types.bsd.xml".

The Argument "Name" field in "Opc.Ua.Types.bsd.xml" has the type "String", both in this file, and in the Spec part 3 (under 8.6 Argument) (edited)

smyrman
[10:11 AM]
To be fair, the text in part 5 that conflicts with the definitions in Part 6 is from an appendix:

Annex E
(normative)
OPC Binary Type Description System

However, since CharArray is not defined in Part 6 (neither is WideString or WideCharArrray for UTF-16), I am confused about the destinction between CharArray and String in the "Opc.Ua.Types.bsd.xml" file