This package is used to help people to handle buffer easily.

Between ArrayBuffer and Buffer

ArrayBuffer object is used to represent a generic, fixed-length raw binary data buffer. Buffer object in node.js is equivalent to Uint8Array (A kind of TypedArray)source, not ArrayBuffer object.

A TypedArray object describes an array-like view of an underlying binary data buffer.

With TypedArray available, the Buffer class implements the Uint8Array API in a manner that is more optimized and suitable for Node.js.

Relationship with binary

1. The Number type is a double-precision 64-bit binary format IEEE 754 value (numbers between -(253 -1) and 253 -1).

2. The String type is a set of "elements" of 16-bit unsigned integer values

Byte order

If control over byte order is needed, you may need to use DataView and take care of endian, endianness, byte-order.

Usage

• convert a string data type to an arrayBuffer

import { stringToBuffer } from '@premix/buffer'

stringToBuffer('a') // return a ArrayBuffer<byteLength=2>

• convert an arrayBuffer to a string

import { bufferToString } from '@premix/buffer'

const view = new Uint16Array(new ArrayBuffer(2))
view[0] = 'a'.charCodeAt(0)
bufferToString(view.buffer) // return a string 'a'

Further readings

• MDN - JavaScript data types and data structures
• MDN - ArrayBuffer
• Nodejd.org - Buffer
• MDN - TypedArray
• ECMA 262 - TypedArray

License

MIT © Bowen Liu