Convert a binary NodeJS Buffer to JavaScript ArrayBuffer

Question

How can I convert a NodeJS binary buffer into a JavaScript ArrayBuffer?

Answer 1

Instances of Buffer are also instances of Uint8Array in node.js 4.x and higher. Thus, the most efficient solution is to access the buf.buffer property directly, as per https://stackoverflow.com/a/31394257/1375574. The Buffer constructor also takes an ArrayBufferView argument if you need to go the other direction.

Note that this will not create a copy, which means that writes to any ArrayBufferView will write through to the original Buffer instance.

---

In older versions, node.js has both ArrayBuffer as part of v8, but the Buffer class provides a more flexible API. In order to read or write to an ArrayBuffer, you only need to create a view and copy across.

From Buffer to ArrayBuffer:

function toArrayBuffer(buf) {
    var ab = new ArrayBuffer(buf.length);
    var view = new Uint8Array(ab);
    for (var i = 0; i < buf.length; ++i) {
        view[i] = buf[i];
    }
    return ab;
}

From ArrayBuffer to Buffer:

function toBuffer(ab) {
    var buf = Buffer.alloc(ab.byteLength);
    var view = new Uint8Array(ab);
    for (var i = 0; i < buf.length; ++i) {
        buf[i] = view[i];
    }
    return buf;
}

Answer 2

No dependencies, fastest, Node.js 4.x and later

Buffers are Uint8Arrays, so you just need to slice (copy) its region of the backing ArrayBuffer.

// Original Buffer
let b = Buffer.alloc(512);
// Slice (copy) its segment of the underlying ArrayBuffer
let ab = b.buffer.slice(b.byteOffset, b.byteOffset + b.byteLength);

The slice and offset stuff is required because small Buffers (less than 4 kB by default, half the pool size) can be views on a shared ArrayBuffer. Without slicing, you can end up with an ArrayBuffer containing data from another Buffer. See explanation in the docs.

If you ultimately need a TypedArray, you can create one without copying the data:

// Create a new view of the ArrayBuffer without copying
let ui32 = new Uint32Array(b.buffer, b.byteOffset, b.byteLength / Uint32Array.BYTES_PER_ELEMENT);

---

No dependencies, moderate speed, any version of Node.js

Use Martin Thomson's answer, which runs in O(n) time. (See also my replies to comments on his answer about non-optimizations. Using a DataView is slow. Even if you need to flip bytes, there are faster ways to do so.)

Dependency, fast, Node.js ≤ 0.12 or iojs 3.x

You can use https://www.npmjs.com/package/memcpy to go in either direction (Buffer to ArrayBuffer and back). It's faster than the other answers posted here and is a well-written library. Node 0.12 through iojs 3.x require ngossen's fork (see this).

Answer 3

"From ArrayBuffer to Buffer" could be done this way:

var buffer = Buffer.from( new Uint8Array(ab) );

Answer 4

A quicker way to write it

var arrayBuffer = new Uint8Array(nodeBuffer).buffer;

However, this appears to run roughly 4 times slower than the suggested toArrayBuffer function on a buffer with 1024 elements.

Answer 5

1. A Buffer is just a view for looking into an ArrayBuffer.

A Buffer, in fact, is a FastBuffer, which extends (inherits from) Uint8Array, which is an octet-unit view (“partial accessor”) of the actual memory, an ArrayBuffer.

  /lib/buffer.js#L65-L73 ^{Node.js 9.4.0}

class FastBuffer extends Uint8Array {
  constructor(arg1, arg2, arg3) {
    super(arg1, arg2, arg3);
  }
}
FastBuffer.prototype.constructor = Buffer;
internalBuffer.FastBuffer = FastBuffer;

Buffer.prototype = FastBuffer.prototype;

---

2. The size of an ArrayBuffer and the size of its view may vary.

Reason #1: Buffer.from(arrayBuffer[, byteOffset[, length]]).

With Buffer.from(arrayBuffer[, byteOffset[, length]]), you can create a Buffer with specifying its underlying ArrayBuffer and the view's position and size.

const test_buffer = Buffer.from(new ArrayBuffer(50), 40, 10);
console.info(test_buffer.buffer.byteLength); // 50; the size of the memory.
console.info(test_buffer.length); // 10; the size of the view.

Reason #2: FastBuffer's memory allocation.

It allocates the memory in two different ways depending on the size.

• If the size is less than the half of the size of a memory pool and is not 0 (“small”): it makes use of a memory pool to prepare the required memory.
• Else: it creates a dedicated ArrayBuffer that exactly fits the required memory.

  /lib/buffer.js#L306-L320 ^{Node.js 9.4.0}

function allocate(size) {
  if (size <= 0) {
    return new FastBuffer();
  }
  if (size < (Buffer.poolSize >>> 1)) {
    if (size > (poolSize - poolOffset))
      createPool();
    var b = new FastBuffer(allocPool, poolOffset, size);
    poolOffset += size;
    alignPool();
    return b;
  } else {
    return createUnsafeBuffer(size);
  }
}

  /lib/buffer.js#L98-L100 ^{Node.js 9.4.0}

function createUnsafeBuffer(size) {
  return new FastBuffer(createUnsafeArrayBuffer(size));
}

---

What do you mean by a “memory pool?”

A memory pool is a fixed-size pre-allocated memory block for keeping small-size memory chunks for Buffers. Using it keeps the small-size memory chunks tightly together, so prevents fragmentation caused by separate management (allocation and deallocation) of small-size memory chunks.

In this case, the memory pools are ArrayBuffers whose size is 8 KiB by default, which is specified in Buffer.poolSize. When it is to provide a small-size memory chunk for a Buffer, it checks if the last memory pool has enough available memory to handle this; if so, it creates a Buffer that “views” the given partial chunk of the memory pool, otherwise, it creates a new memory pool and so on.

---

You can access the underlying ArrayBuffer of a Buffer. The Buffer's buffer property (that is, inherited from Uint8Array) holds it. A “small” Buffer's buffer property is an ArrayBuffer that represents the entire memory pool. So in this case, the ArrayBuffer and the Buffer varies in size.

const zero_sized_buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(0);
const small_buffer = Buffer.from([0xC0, 0xFF, 0xEE]);
const big_buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(Buffer.poolSize >>> 1);

// A `Buffer`'s `length` property holds the size, in octets, of the view.
// An `ArrayBuffer`'s `byteLength` property holds the size, in octets, of its data.

console.info(zero_sized_buffer.length); /// 0; the view's size.
console.info(zero_sized_buffer.buffer.byteLength); /// 0; the memory..'s size.
console.info(Buffer.poolSize); /// 8192; a memory pool's size.

console.info(small_buffer.length); /// 3; the view's size.
console.info(small_buffer.buffer.byteLength); /// 8192; the memory pool's size.
console.info(Buffer.poolSize); /// 8192; a memory pool's size.

console.info(big_buffer.length); /// 4096; the view's size.
console.info(big_buffer.buffer.byteLength); /// 4096; the memory's size.
console.info(Buffer.poolSize); /// 8192; a memory pool's size.

---

3. So we need to extract the memory it “views.”

An ArrayBuffer is fixed in size, so we need to extract it out by making a copy of the part. To do this, we use Buffer's byteOffset property and length property, which are inherited from Uint8Array, and the ArrayBuffer.prototype.slice method, which makes a copy of a part of an ArrayBuffer. The slice()-ing method herein was inspired by @ZachB.

const test_buffer = Buffer.from(new ArrayBuffer(10));
const zero_sized_buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(0);
const small_buffer = Buffer.from([0xC0, 0xFF, 0xEE]);
const big_buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(Buffer.poolSize >>> 1);

function extract_arraybuffer(buf)
{
    // You may use the `byteLength` property instead of the `length` one.
    return buf.buffer.slice(buf.byteOffset, buf.byteOffset + buf.length);
}

// A copy -
const test_arraybuffer = extract_arraybuffer(test_buffer); // of the memory.
const zero_sized_arraybuffer = extract_arraybuffer(zero_sized_buffer); // of the... void.
const small_arraybuffer = extract_arraybuffer(small_buffer); // of the part of the memory.
const big_arraybuffer = extract_arraybuffer(big_buffer); // of the memory.

console.info(test_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 10
console.info(zero_sized_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 0
console.info(small_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 3
console.info(big_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 4096

---

4. Performance improvement

If you're to use the results as read-only, or it is okay to modify the input Buffers' contents, you can avoid unnecessary memory copying.

const test_buffer = Buffer.from(new ArrayBuffer(10));
const zero_sized_buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(0);
const small_buffer = Buffer.from([0xC0, 0xFF, 0xEE]);
const big_buffer = Buffer.allocUnsafe(Buffer.poolSize >>> 1);

function obtain_arraybuffer(buf)
{
    if(buf.length === buf.buffer.byteLength)
    {
        return buf.buffer;
    } // else:
    // You may use the `byteLength` property instead of the `length` one.
    return buf.subarray(0, buf.length);
}

// Its underlying `ArrayBuffer`.
const test_arraybuffer = obtain_arraybuffer(test_buffer);
// Just a zero-sized `ArrayBuffer`.
const zero_sized_arraybuffer = obtain_arraybuffer(zero_sized_buffer);
// A copy of the part of the memory.
const small_arraybuffer = obtain_arraybuffer(small_buffer);
// Its underlying `ArrayBuffer`.
const big_arraybuffer = obtain_arraybuffer(big_buffer);

console.info(test_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 10
console.info(zero_sized_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 0
console.info(small_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 3
console.info(big_arraybuffer.byteLength); // 4096

Answer 6

Use the following excellent npm package: to-arraybuffer.

Or, you can implement it yourself. If your buffer is called buf, do this:

buf.buffer.slice(buf.byteOffset, buf.byteOffset + buf.byteLength)

Answer 7

You can think of an ArrayBuffer as a typed Buffer.

An ArrayBuffer therefore always needs a type (the so-called "Array Buffer View"). Typically, the Array Buffer View has a type of Uint8Array or Uint16Array.

There is a good article from Renato Mangini on converting between an ArrayBuffer and a String.

I have summarized the essential parts in a code example (for Node.js). It also shows how to convert between the typed ArrayBuffer and the untyped Buffer.

function stringToArrayBuffer(string) {
  const arrayBuffer = new ArrayBuffer(string.length);
  const arrayBufferView = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
  for (let i = 0; i < string.length; i++) {
    arrayBufferView[i] = string.charCodeAt(i);
  }
  return arrayBuffer;
}

function arrayBufferToString(buffer) {
  return String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint8Array(buffer));
}

const helloWorld = stringToArrayBuffer('Hello, World!'); // "ArrayBuffer" (Uint8Array)
const encodedString = new Buffer(helloWorld).toString('base64'); // "string"
const decodedBuffer = Buffer.from(encodedString, 'base64'); // "Buffer"
const decodedArrayBuffer = new Uint8Array(decodedBuffer).buffer; // "ArrayBuffer" (Uint8Array)

console.log(arrayBufferToString(decodedArrayBuffer)); // prints "Hello, World!"

Answer 8

I tried the above for a Float64Array and it just did not work.

I ended up realising that really the data needed to be read 'INTO' the view in correct chunks. This means reading 8 bytes at a time from the source Buffer.

Anyway this is what I ended up with...

var buff = new Buffer("40100000000000004014000000000000", "hex");
var ab = new ArrayBuffer(buff.length);
var view = new Float64Array(ab);

var viewIndex = 0;
for (var bufferIndex=0;bufferIndex<buff.length;bufferIndex=bufferIndex+8)            {

    view[viewIndex] = buff.readDoubleLE(bufferIndex);
    viewIndex++;
}

Answer 9

This Proxy will expose the buffer as any of the TypedArrays, without any copy. :

https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-buffer-as-typedarray

It only works on LE, but can be easily ported to BE. Also, never got to actually test how efficient this is.

Answer 10

Now there is a very useful npm package for this: buffer https://github.com/feross/buffer

It tries to provide an API that is 100% identical to node's Buffer API and allow:

• convert typed array to buffer: https://github.com/feross/buffer#convert-typed-array-to-buffer
• convert buffer to typed array: https://github.com/feross/buffer#convert-buffer-to-typed-array

and few more.

Answer 11

NodeJS, at one point (I think it was v0.6.x) had ArrayBuffer support. I created a small library for base64 encoding and decoding here, but since updating to v0.7, the tests (on NodeJS) fail. I'm thinking of creating something that normalizes this, but till then, I suppose Node's native Buffer should be used.

Answer 12

I have already update my node to Version 5.0.0 And I work work with this:

function toArrayBuffer(buffer){
    var array = [];
    var json = buffer.toJSON();
    var list = json.data

    for(var key in list){
        array.push(fixcode(list[key].toString(16)))
    }

    function fixcode(key){
        if(key.length==1){
            return '0'+key.toUpperCase()
        }else{
            return key.toUpperCase()
        }
    }

    return array
}

I use it to check my vhd disk image.