public int readString()

in hessian-lite/src/main/java/com/alibaba/com/caucho/hessian/io/Hessian2Input.java [1500:1652]
139 lines of code
87 McCabe index (conditional complexity)

    public int readString(char[] buffer, int offset, int length)
            throws IOException {
        int readLength = 0;

        if (_chunkLength == END_OF_DATA) {
            _chunkLength = 0;
            return -1;
        } else if (_chunkLength == 0) {
            int tag = read();

            switch (tag) {
                case 'N':
                    return -1;

                case 'S':
                case BC_STRING_CHUNK:
                    _isLastChunk = tag == 'S';
                    _chunkLength = (read() << 8) + read();
                    break;

                case 0x00:
                case 0x01:
                case 0x02:
                case 0x03:
                case 0x04:
                case 0x05:
                case 0x06:
                case 0x07:
                case 0x08:
                case 0x09:
                case 0x0a:
                case 0x0b:
                case 0x0c:
                case 0x0d:
                case 0x0e:
                case 0x0f:

                case 0x10:
                case 0x11:
                case 0x12:
                case 0x13:
                case 0x14:
                case 0x15:
                case 0x16:
                case 0x17:
                case 0x18:
                case 0x19:
                case 0x1a:
                case 0x1b:
                case 0x1c:
                case 0x1d:
                case 0x1e:
                case 0x1f:
                    _isLastChunk = true;
                    _chunkLength = tag - 0x00;
                    break;

                case 0x30:
                case 0x31:
                case 0x32:
                case 0x33:
                    _isLastChunk = true;
                    _chunkLength = (tag - 0x30) * 256 + read();
                    break;

                default:
                    throw expect("string", tag);
            }
        }

        while (length > 0) {
            if (_chunkLength > 0) {
                buffer[offset++] = (char) parseUTF8Char();
                _chunkLength--;
                length--;
                readLength++;
            } else if (_isLastChunk) {
                if (readLength == 0)
                    return -1;
                else {
                    _chunkLength = END_OF_DATA;
                    return readLength;
                }
            } else {
                int tag = read();

                switch (tag) {
                    case 'S':
                    case BC_STRING_CHUNK:
                        _isLastChunk = tag == 'S';
                        _chunkLength = (read() << 8) + read();
                        break;

                    case 0x00:
                    case 0x01:
                    case 0x02:
                    case 0x03:
                    case 0x04:
                    case 0x05:
                    case 0x06:
                    case 0x07:
                    case 0x08:
                    case 0x09:
                    case 0x0a:
                    case 0x0b:
                    case 0x0c:
                    case 0x0d:
                    case 0x0e:
                    case 0x0f:

                    case 0x10:
                    case 0x11:
                    case 0x12:
                    case 0x13:
                    case 0x14:
                    case 0x15:
                    case 0x16:
                    case 0x17:
                    case 0x18:
                    case 0x19:
                    case 0x1a:
                    case 0x1b:
                    case 0x1c:
                    case 0x1d:
                    case 0x1e:
                    case 0x1f:
                        _isLastChunk = true;
                        _chunkLength = tag - 0x00;
                        break;

                    case 0x30:
                    case 0x31:
                    case 0x32:
                    case 0x33:
                        _isLastChunk = true;
                        _chunkLength = (tag - 0x30) * 256 + read();
                        break;

                    default:
                        throw expect("string", tag);
                }
            }
        }

        if (readLength == 0)
            return -1;
        else if (_chunkLength > 0 || !_isLastChunk)
            return readLength;
        else {
            _chunkLength = END_OF_DATA;
            return readLength;
        }
    }