typedarray-to-buffer
Advanced tools
Package description
The typedarray-to-buffer npm package is a simple utility that converts a TypedArray or ArrayBuffer to a Node.js Buffer without copying the underlying memory. It's particularly useful when you need to work with Node.js buffers but are starting with a TypedArray (like Uint8Array) or an ArrayBuffer that you've obtained from a different context, such as the Web API or another library that doesn't use Node.js buffers.
Convert TypedArray to Buffer
This feature allows you to convert a TypedArray, such as Uint8Array, to a Node.js Buffer instance. The conversion is done without copying the data, making it a fast operation.
var toBuffer = require('typedarray-to-buffer');
var uint8array = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]);
var buffer = toBuffer(uint8array);This package provides a way to create a new Buffer instance from a variety of inputs including TypedArrays, Buffers, strings, and arrays. It's similar to typedarray-to-buffer but offers more input options and creates a new Buffer with copied data.
The to-arraybuffer package is designed to convert a Buffer or a string to an ArrayBuffer. It's similar in that it deals with conversions between Buffer and ArrayBuffer, but it goes in the opposite direction compared to typedarray-to-buffer.
Readme
Say you're using the 'buffer' module on npm, or browserify and you're working with lots of binary data.
Unfortunately, sometimes the browser or someone else's API gives you an ArrayBuffer
or typed array (Uint8Array, etc.) to work with and you need to convert it to a
Buffer. What do you do?
Of course: new Buffer(uint8array)
But, alas, every time you do new Buffer(uint8array), the entire array gets copied into
a new typed array. This is expensive. The Buffer constructor does a copy; this is
defined by the node docs, so it can't be easily
changed and the 'buffer' module matches the node API exactly.
So, what can you do if you're writing a performance critical application and can't afford extra copies for no good reason?
Use this module, of course!
npm install typedarray-to-buffer
To convert a typed array to a Buffer without a copy, do this:
var toBuffer = require('typedarray-to-buffer')
var Buffer = require('buffer/').Buffer // omit this line if you're using `browserify`
var arr = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3])
arr = toBuffer(arr)
// arr is a buffer now!
arr.toString() // '\u0001\u0002\u0003'
arr.readUInt16BE(0) // 258
In the case that the browser actually supports typed arrays, you don't even need to use
the return value of toBuffer since the original Uint8Array has been augmented
with all the methods from Buffer. See
how does Buffer work? for why we do
this.
If the browser doesn't support typed arrays then the only way we can give a buffer is to return it you. So, just always use the return value if you want to support all browsers!
MIT. Copyright (C) Feross Aboukhadijeh.
FAQs
Convert a typed array to a Buffer without a copy
We found that typedarray-to-buffer demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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