Question on how PKHEX handles individual Pokemon Data

[john36]

I'm currently re-working on my living dex, this time wanting to have most pokemon possible having my OT. Having never owned Platinum, I Homebrew'd it onto my 3ds and started catching.
Of course, Platinum isn't usable with Pokemon Bank and my Homebrew'd Platinum wasn't recognized by the PokeTransporter, so I ended up using PKHex to transfer what I needed to transfer over to USUM.

Doing so, a question popped up in my mind. Going under the assumption that each pokemon has their own little text files, how /exact/ are the copies that PKHex made onto my USUM save? Obviously exact enough to pass through official legality checker, Does it, however truncate any unused data that might be in there? If someone was to open the original Platinum pokemon's file in notepad (or whatever is used to do so) alongside the USUM copied pokemon, would there be ANY difference whatsoever? Maybe more line returns, info placed in different orders, stuff like that... Or would it be an absolutely exact copy, even within "notepad"?

Hope I managed to word the question in an intelligible manner.

I look forward to your answers, thanks for your time!

Edited November 26, 2019 by john36

[ReignOfComputer]

Pokemon data has a structure, which is different every generation. You don't really think of it as text files.

PKHeX emulates the migration process flawlessly.

[john36]

3 minutes ago, ReignOfComputer said:

Pokemon data has a structure, which is different every generation. You don't really think of it as text files.

PKHeX emulates the migration process flawlessly.

Any pointers on where to go/what to use if I wanted to check out the raw data of a pokemon?

[Poke J]

@john36 if your wanting to look at the “raw data” you’ll need to use a hex editor.  I recommend using HxD.

[john36]

30 minutes ago, Poke J said:

@john36 if your wanting to look at the “raw data” you’ll need to use a hex editor.  I recommend using HxD.

I did just that after reading your comment. Fascinating, I'd never worked with Hex before, After reading up on it it's kinda obvious, I just never put 2 and 2 together. Is there a simple way to explain how that structure changes every generation?

Thanks again for your time in indulging my ignorant curiosity, ReignOfComputer and Poke J.

[theSLAYER]

20 minutes ago, john36 said:

Is there a simple way to explain how that structure changes every generation?

yeah, read wikis and documentation.

They shuffle bytes around, add extra information, remove extra information.
The most concise way is to explain the changes in structure, is to tell you to look up documentation.

There's now 8 generations, excluding minor revisions that even occur mid-generation.
(example: Poké Ball caught in for HGSS uses trash bytes that was unused in DP, so that the Ball data carries over properly etc)
There is no way to adequately summarize everything that has been changed.

 

edit:
Bulbapedia has Gen 1 to 4 data structure.
Our Technical Documentation, sorted by generations, has the data structure too.
Whatever else isn't there, can be found on PKHeX, albeit in code.