istextorbinary
Advanced tools
Determine if a filename and/or buffer is text or binary. Smarter detection than the other solutions.
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.
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');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.
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.
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.
Determine if a filename and/or buffer is text or binary. Smarter detection than the other solutions.
Determination works like so:
The extension check will check each of the filename's extensions, from right to left. This is done as certain applications utilise multiple extensions for transformations, such as app.x.y may tell a compiler to transform from x format to y format, in this case perhaps x is not a recognized extension but y is, in which case we can make use of that to provide superior accuracy and convenience compared to just checking the rightmost extension.
The contents 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 contents 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 extension check (if filename is provided), then contents 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.
import { isText, isBinary, getEncoding } from 'istextorbinary'
or
const { isText, isBinary, getEncoding } = require('istextorbinary')
then
isText(aFilename) // returns true if a text file otherwise false, checks only filename
isText(null, aBuffer) // returns true if a text file otherwise false, checks only buffer
isText(aFilename, aBuffer) // returns true if a text file otherwise false, checks filename then buffer
isText(null, null) // returns null
isBinary(aFilename) // returns true if a binary file otherwise false, checks only filename
isBinary(null, aBuffer) // returns true if a binary file otherwise false, checks only buffer
isBinary(aFilename, aBuffer) // returns true if a binary file otherwise false, checks filename then buffer
isBinary(null, null) // returns null
getEncoding(aBuffer) // returns 'binary' if it contained non-utf8 characters, otherwise returns 'utf8'
npm install --save istextorbinaryimport * as pkg from ('istextorbinary')const pkg = require('istextorbinary')import * as pkg from 'https://unpkg.com/istextorbinary@^9.5.0/edition-deno/index.ts'
<script type="module">
import * as pkg from '//cdn.skypack.dev/istextorbinary@^9.5.0'
</script>
<script type="module">
import * as pkg from '//unpkg.com/istextorbinary@^9.5.0'
</script>
<script type="module">
import * as pkg from '//dev.jspm.io/istextorbinary@9.5.0'
</script>
This package is published with the following editions:
istextorbinary aliases istextorbinary/index.cjs which uses the Editions Autoloader to automatically select the correct edition for the consumer's environmentistextorbinary/source/index.ts is TypeScript source code with Import for modulesistextorbinary/edition-browsers/index.js is TypeScript compiled against ES2022 for web browsers with Import for modulesistextorbinary/edition-es2022/index.js is TypeScript compiled against ES2022 for Node.js 14 || 16 || 18 || 20 || 21 with Require for modulesistextorbinary/edition-es2017/index.js is TypeScript compiled against ES2017 for Node.js 6 || 8 || 10 || 12 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 20 || 21 with Require for modulesistextorbinary/edition-es5/index.js is TypeScript compiled against ES5 for Node.js 4 || 6 || 8 || 10 || 12 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 20 || 21 with Require for modulesistextorbinary/edition-es2017-esm/index.js is TypeScript compiled against ES2017 for Node.js 12 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 20 || 21 with Import for modulesistextorbinary/edition-types/index.d.ts is TypeScript compiled Types with Import for modulesistextorbinary/edition-deno/index.ts is TypeScript source code made to be compatible with DenoDiscover the release history by heading on over to the HISTORY.md file.
Discover how to contribute via the CONTRIBUTING.md file.
Unless stated otherwise all works are:
and licensed under:
v9.5.0 2023 December 29
FAQs
Determine if a filename and/or buffer is text or binary. Smarter detection than the other solutions.
The npm package istextorbinary receives a total of 791,929 weekly downloads. As such, istextorbinary popularity was classified as popular.
We found that istextorbinary demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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