What is istextorbinary?
The istextorbinary npm package is used to determine whether a given file or buffer is text or binary. This can be useful in various scenarios such as file processing, content validation, and data handling.
What are istextorbinary's main functionalities?
Check if a file is text or binary
This feature allows you to check if a file is text or binary. The `isText` function takes a file path and a callback function. The callback function receives an error (if any) and a boolean indicating whether the file is text.
const istextorbinary = require('istextorbinary');
istextorbinary.isText('example.txt', function(err, result) {
if (err) throw err;
console.log(result ? 'Text' : 'Binary');
});
Check if a buffer is text or binary
This feature allows you to check if a buffer is text or binary. The `isText` function can also take a buffer as an argument. The callback function receives an error (if any) and a boolean indicating whether the buffer is text.
const istextorbinary = require('istextorbinary');
const buffer = Buffer.from('Hello, world!');
istextorbinary.isText(null, buffer, function(err, result) {
if (err) throw err;
console.log(result ? 'Text' : 'Binary');
});
Synchronous check if a file is text or binary
This feature allows you to synchronously check if a file is text or binary. The `isTextSync` function takes a file path and returns a boolean indicating whether the file is text.
const istextorbinary = require('istextorbinary');
const result = istextorbinary.isTextSync('example.txt');
console.log(result ? 'Text' : 'Binary');
Synchronous check if a buffer is text or binary
This feature allows you to synchronously check if a buffer is text or binary. The `isTextSync` function can also take a buffer as an argument and returns a boolean indicating whether the buffer is text.
const istextorbinary = require('istextorbinary');
const buffer = Buffer.from('Hello, world!');
const result = istextorbinary.isTextSync(null, buffer);
console.log(result ? 'Text' : 'Binary');
Other packages similar to istextorbinary
file-type
The file-type package is used to detect the file type of a Buffer/Uint8Array/ArrayBuffer. It can determine the MIME type and extension of a file. Unlike istextorbinary, which focuses on distinguishing between text and binary, file-type provides more detailed information about the file type.
detect-file-type
The detect-file-type package is another library for detecting the file type of a buffer or stream. It provides similar functionality to file-type but with a different API. It can identify a wide range of file types, whereas istextorbinary is specifically designed to differentiate between text and binary files.
binary-parser
The binary-parser package is used for parsing binary data in Node.js. It allows you to define a schema for binary data and parse it accordingly. While it doesn't directly compete with istextorbinary, it is useful for working with binary data once you have identified it using istextorbinary.
Is Text or Binary?
Determine if a filename and/or buffer is text or binary. Smarter detection than the other solutions.
Determination works like so:
- If filename is available, check if its extension is a text extension or if it is a binary extension, this is near instant.
- If no filename was provided, or the extension check was indeterminate, then check the buffer.
The buffer check (with the default options) will check 24 bytes at the start, middle, and end of the buffer. History has shown that checking all three locations is mandatory for accuracy, and that anything less is not accurate. This technique offers superior performance while still offering superior accuracy. Alternatives generally just do 1000 bytes at the start, which is slower, and inaccurate.
One cannot just do the buffer check alone because UTF16 characters are indistinguishable from binary which would return an inaccurate result, hence why the combination is necessary for accuracy, with performance for known extensions a side-effect.
As such, this library's combination of text check (if filename is provided), then buffer check (if buffer is provided), offers superior performance and accuracy to alternatives.
Ever since 2012, this module's superior accuracy and performance has been essential to the operation of DocPad and its other dependents.
Usage
Complete API Documentation.
Install
- Install:
npm install --save istextorbinary
- Require:
require('istextorbinary')
<script type="module">
import * as pkg from '//dev.jspm.io/istextorbinary'
</script>
This package is published with the following editions:
istextorbinary
aliases istextorbinary/index.js
which uses Editions to automatically select the correct edition for the consumers environmentistextorbinary/source/index.js
is esnext source code with require for modulesistextorbinary/edition-browsers/index.js
is esnext compiled for browsers with require for modulesistextorbinary/edition-node-0.12/index.js
is esnext compiled for node.js 0.12 with require for modules
This project provides its type information via inline JSDoc Comments. To make use of this in TypeScript, set your maxNodeModuleJsDepth
compiler option to 5
or thereabouts. You can accomlish this via your tsconfig.json
file like so:
{
"compilerOptions": {
"maxNodeModuleJsDepth": 5
}
}
History
Discover the release history by heading on over to the HISTORY.md
file.
Contribute
Discover how you can contribute by heading on over to the CONTRIBUTING.md
file.
Backers
Maintainers
These amazing people are maintaining this project:
No sponsors yet! Will you be the first?
Contributors
These amazing people have contributed code to this project:
Discover how you can contribute by heading on over to the CONTRIBUTING.md
file.
License
Unless stated otherwise all works are:
and licensed under: