Create ArrayBuffer from Array (holding integers) and back again

Question

It seems so simple, but I cannot find out how to convert an Array filled with integers to an ArrayBuffer and back again to an Array. T

Answer 1

Yes, there's a simple way without manually writing a loop (the loop still exists somewhere in background):

new Uint16Array([1,2,3]);

That's all. Of course, floating numbers will be rounded down and big numbers will overflow.

Converting typed array to buffer

The buffer of any typed array is accessible through .buffer property, as anyone can read on MDN:

new Uint16Array([1,2,3]).buffer;

Chosing the right typed array

Be warned that mentioned Uint16Array will only hold integers (no floating point) between zero and 65535. To hold any javascript Number¹ you will want to use Float64Array - the bigest one, taking 8 bytes total.

_{1: Which is unrestricted double, which appears to be 64bit IEEE 754 number}

Here's a map I have created that maps some of the important information related to number data types:

var NUMBER_TYPE = [
  {name: "uint8",   bytes:1, max:        255,       min: 0,                floating: false, array: Uint8Array},
  {name: "int8",    bytes:1, max:        127,       min: -128,             floating: false, array: Int8Array},
  {name: "uint16",  bytes:2, max:      65535,       min: 0,                floating: false, array: Uint16Array},
  {name: "int16",   bytes:2, max:      32767,       min: -32768,           floating: false, array: Int16Array},
  {name: "uint32",  bytes:4, max: 4294967295,       min: 0,                floating: false, array: Uint32Array},
  {name: "int32",   bytes:4, max: 2147483647,       min: -2147483648,      floating: false, array: Int32Array},
  {name: "float64", bytes:8, max: Number.MAX_VALUE, min: Number.MIN_VALUE, floating: true , array: Float64Array}
];

Float 32 is missing as I was unable to calculate necessary information for it. The map, as it is, can be used to calculate the smallest typed array you can fit a Number in:

function findNumberType(num) {
    // detect whether number has something after the floating point
    var float = num!==(num|0);
    // Prepare the return variable
    var type = null;
    for(var i=0,l=NUMBER_TYPE.length; i<l; i++) {
      // Assume this type by default - unless break is hit, every type ends as `float64`
      type = NUMBER_TYPE[i];
      // Comparison asserts that number is in bounds and disalows floats to be stored 
      // as integers
      if( (!float || type.floating) && num<=type.max && num>=type.min) {
          // If this breaks, the smallest data type has been chosen
          break;
      }
    }
    return type;
}

Used as:

var n = 1222;
var buffer = new (findNumberType(n).array)([n]);

Note that this only works if NUMBER_TYPE is properly ordered.

Answer 2

You can't use an ArrayBuffer directly, but you can create a typed array from a normal array by using the from method:

let typedArray = Int32Array.from([-2, -1, 0, 1, 2])