@multiformats/base-x

What is @multiformats/base-x?

@multiformats/base-x is a JavaScript library for encoding and decoding data using custom base alphabets. It is commonly used for encoding binary data into a textual representation that is more human-readable and easier to handle in text-based systems.

What are @multiformats/base-x's main functionalities?

Custom Base Encoding

This feature allows you to encode data using a custom base alphabet. In this example, the data 'hello world' is encoded using the Base58 alphabet.

const baseX = require('@multiformats/base-x');
const BASE58 = '123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz';
const base58 = baseX(BASE58);
const encoded = base58.encode(Buffer.from('hello world'));
console.log(encoded); // prints 'StV1DL6CwTryKyV'

Custom Base Decoding

This feature allows you to decode data that was encoded using a custom base alphabet. In this example, the encoded string 'StV1DL6CwTryKyV' is decoded back to 'hello world'.

const baseX = require('@multiformats/base-x');
const BASE58 = '123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz';
const base58 = baseX(BASE58);
const decoded = base58.decode('StV1DL6CwTryKyV');
console.log(decoded.toString()); // prints 'hello world'

Other packages similar to @multiformats/base-x

base-x

The 'base-x' package is a similar library that provides encoding and decoding functionalities for custom base alphabets. It is a lightweight and straightforward library, making it a good alternative to @multiformats/base-x.

bs58

The 'bs58' package is specifically designed for Base58 encoding and decoding. It is optimized for performance and is widely used in cryptocurrency applications. Unlike @multiformats/base-x, it does not support custom base alphabets.

base64-js

The 'base64-js' package provides Base64 encoding and decoding functionalities. It is a simple and efficient library for handling Base64 operations but does not support custom base alphabets like @multiformats/base-x.

README

base-x

(Hopefully temporary) fork of base-x library which removed node Buffer dependecy.

Fast base encoding / decoding of any given alphabet using bitcoin style leading zero compression.

WARNING: This module is NOT RFC3548 compliant, it cannot be used for base16 (hex), base32, or base64 encoding in a standards compliant manner.

Example

Base58

var BASE58 = '123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz'
var bs58 = require('@multiformats/base-x')(BASE58)

var decoded = bs58.decode('5Kd3NBUAdUnhyzenEwVLy9pBKxSwXvE9FMPyR4UKZvpe6E3AgLr')

console.log(decoded)
// => <Buffer 80 ed db dc 11 68 f1 da ea db d3 e4 4c 1e 3f 8f 5a 28 4c 20 29 f7 8a d2 6a f9 85 83 a4 99 de 5b 19>

console.log(bs58.encode(decoded))
// => 5Kd3NBUAdUnhyzenEwVLy9pBKxSwXvE9FMPyR4UKZvpe6E3AgLr

Alphabets

See below for a list of commonly recognized alphabets, and their respective base.

Base	Alphabet
2	01
8	01234567
11	0123456789a
16	0123456789abcdef
32	0123456789ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRSTVWXYZ
32	ybndrfg8ejkmcpqxot1uwisza345h769 (z-base-32)
36	0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
58	123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz
62	0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
64	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/
66	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-_.!~

How it works

It encodes octet arrays by doing long divisions on all significant digits in the array, creating a representation of that number in the new base. Then for every leading zero in the input (not significant as a number) it will encode as a single leader character. This is the first in the alphabet and will decode as 8 bits. The other characters depend upon the base. For example, a base58 alphabet packs roughly 5.858 bits per character.

This means the encoded string 000f (using a base16, 0-f alphabet) will actually decode to 4 bytes unlike a canonical hex encoding which uniformly packs 4 bits into each character.

While unusual, this does mean that no padding is required and it works for bases like 43.

LICENSE MIT

A direct derivation of the base58 implementation from bitcoin/bitcoin, generalized for variable length alphabets.