Javascript ArrayBuffer to Hex

Question

I\'ve got a Javascript ArrayBuffer that I would like to be converted into a hex string.

Anyone knows of a function that I can call or a pre written function already

Answer 1

Here are several methods for encoding an ArrayBuffer to hex, in order of speed. All methods were tested in Firefox initially, but afterwards I went and tested in Chrome (V8). In Chrome the methods were mostly in the same order but it did have slight differenences--the important thing is that #1 is the fastest method in all environments by a huge margin.

If you want to see how slow the currently selected answer is, you can go ahead and scroll to the bottom of this list lmao.

Attention Copy-Pasters

Be good boys/girls and use solution #1. It is both the fastest and the best supported. The only faster method of encoding to hex in a browser is writing optimized C code and compiling to Web Assembly.

1. Precomputed Hex Octets w/ for Loop (Fastest/Baseline)

This approach computes the 2-character hex octets for every possible value of an unsigned byte: [0, 255], and then just maps each value in the ArrayBuffer through the array of octet strings. Credit to Aaron Watters for the original answer using this method.

const byteToHex = [];

for (let n = 0; n <= 0xff; ++n)
{
    const hexOctet = n.toString(16).padStart(2, "0");
    byteToHex.push(hexOctet);
}

function hex(arrayBuffer)
{
    const buff = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
    const hexOctets = []; // new Array(buff.length) is even faster (preallocates necessary array size), then use hexOctets[i] instead of .push()

    for (let i = 0; i < buff.length; ++i)
        hexOctets.push(byteToHex[buff[i]]);

    return hexOctets.join("");
}

2. Precomputed Hex Octets w/ Array.map (~30% slower)

Same as the above method, where we precompute an array in which the value for each index is the hex string for the index's value, but we use a hack where we call the Array prototype's map() method with the buffer. This is a more functional approach, but if you really want speed you will always use for loops rather than ES6 array methods, as all modern JS engines optimize them much better.

IMPORTANT: You cannot use new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer).map(...). Although Uint8Array implements the ArrayLike interface, its map method will return another Uint8Array which cannot contain strings (hex octets in our case), hence the Array prototype hack.

function hex(arrayBuffer)
{
    return Array.prototype.map.call(
        new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer),
        n => byteToHex[n]
    ).join("");
}

3. Precomputed ASCII Character Codes (~230% slower)

Well this was a disappointing experiment. I wrote up this function because I thought it would be even faster than Aaron's precomputed hex octets--boy was I wrong LOL. While Aaron maps entire bytes to their corresponding 2-character hex codes, this solution uses bitshifting to get the hex character for the first 4 bits in each byte and then the one for the last 4 and uses String.fromCharCode(). Honestly I think String.fromCharCode() must just be poorly optimized, since it is not used by very many people and is low on browser vendors' lists of priorities.

const asciiCodes = new Uint8Array(
    Array.prototype.map.call(
        "0123456789abcdef",
        char => char.charCodeAt()
    )
);

function hex(arrayBuffer)
{
    const buff = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
    const charCodes = new Uint8Array(buff.length * 2);

    for (let i = 0; i < buff.length; ++i)
    {
        charCodes[i * 2] = asciiCodes[buff[i] >>> 4];
        charCodes[i * 2 + 1] = asciiCodes[buff[i] & 0xf];
    }

    return String.fromCharCode(...charCodes);
}

4. Array.prototype.map() w/ padStart() (~290% slower)

This method maps an array of bytes using the Number.toString() method to get the hex and then padding the octet with a "0" if necessary via the String.padStart() method.

IMPORTANT: String.padStart() is a relative new standard, so you should not use this or method #5 if you are planning on supporting browsers older than 2017 or so or Internet Explorer. TBH if your users are still using IE you should probably just go to their houses at this point and install Chrome/Firefox. Do us all a favor. :^D

function hex(arrayBuffer)
{
    return Array.prototype.map.call(
        new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer),
        n => n.toString(16).padStart(2, "0")
    ).join("");
}

5. Array.from().map() w/ padStart() (~370% slower)

This is the same as #4 but instead of the Array prototype hack, we create an actual number array from the Uint8Array and call map() on that directly. We pay in speed though.

function hex(arrayBuffer)
{
    return Array.from(new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer))
        .map(n => n.toString(16).padStart(2, "0"))
        .join("");
}

6. Array.prototype.map() w/ slice() (~450% slower)

This is the selected answer, do not use this unless you are a typical web developer and performance makes you uneasy (answer #1 is supported by just as many browsers).

function hex(arrayBuffer)
{
    return Array.prototype.map.call(
        new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer),
        n => ("0" + n.toString(16)).slice(-2)
    ).join("");
}

Answer 2

This one's inspired by Sam Claus' #1 which is indeed the fastest method on here. Still, I've found that using plain string concatenation instead of using an array as a string buffer is even faster! At least it is on Chrome. (which is V8 which is almost every browser these days and NodeJS)

const len = 0x100, byteToHex = new Array(len), char = String.fromCharCode;
let n = 0;
for (; n < 0x0a; ++n) byteToHex[n] = '0' + n;
for (; n < 0x10; ++n) byteToHex[n] = '0' + char(n + 87);
for (; n < len; ++n) byteToHex[n] = n.toString(16);
function byteArrayToHex(byteArray) {
    const l = byteArray.length;
    let hex = '';
    for (let i = 0; i < l; ++i) hex += byteToHex[byteArray[i] % len];
    return hex;
}
function bufferToHex(arrayBuffer) {
    return byteArrayToHex(new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer));
}

Answer 3

I use this to hexdump ArrayBuffers the same way that Node dumps Buffers.

function pad(n: string, width: number, z = '0') {
    return n.length >= width ? n : new Array(width - n.length + 1).join(z) + n;
}
function hexdump(buf: ArrayBuffer) {
    let view = new Uint8Array(buf);
    let hex = Array.from(view).map(v => this.pad(v.toString(16), 2));
    return `<Buffer ${hex.join(" ")}>`;
}

Example (with transpiled js version):

const buffer = new Uint8Array([ 4, 8, 12, 16 ]).buffer;
console.log(hexdump(buffer)); // <Buffer 04 08 0c 10>