typedarray-to-buffer
Convert a typed array to a Buffer without a copy.
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 a typed array like Uint8Array
to work with and you need to convert it to a Buffer
. What do you do?
Of course: Buffer.from(uint8array)
But, alas, every time you do Buffer.from(uint8array)
the entire array gets copied. The Buffer
constructor does a copy; this is defined by the node docs and the 'buffer' module matches the node API exactly.
So, how can we avoid this expensive copy in performance critical applications?
Simply use this module, of course!
If you have an ArrayBuffer
, you don't need this module, because Buffer.from(arrayBuffer)
is already efficient.
install
npm install typedarray-to-buffer
usage
To convert a typed array to a Buffer
without a copy, do this:
var toBuffer = require('typedarray-to-buffer')
var arr = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3])
arr = toBuffer(arr)
// arr is a buffer now!
arr.toString() // '\u0001\u0002\u0003'
arr.readUInt16BE(0) // 258
how it works
If the browser supports typed arrays, then toBuffer
will augment the typed array you pass in with the Buffer
methods and return it. See how does Buffer work? for more about how augmentation works.
This module uses the typed array's underlying ArrayBuffer
to back the new Buffer
. This respects the "view" on the ArrayBuffer
, i.e. byteOffset
and byteLength
. In other words, if you do toBuffer(new Uint32Array([1, 2, 3]))
, then the new Buffer
will contain [1, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0]
, not [1, 2, 3]
. And it still doesn't require a copy.
If the browser doesn't support typed arrays, then toBuffer
will create a new Buffer
object, copy the data into it, and return it. There's no simple performance optimization we can do for old browsers. Oh well.
If this module is used in node, then it will just call Buffer.from
. This is just for the convenience of modules that work in both node and the browser.
license
MIT. Copyright (C) Feross Aboukhadijeh.