Question

164

Synchronously read file and convert to byte-array

rated 0 times [ 166] [ 2] / answers: 1 / hits: 19701 / 7 Years ago, mon, august 21, 2017, 12:00:00

I'm using Node.js to gzip some files and output their raw byte array to a file.

For example:

test.txt:

text.txt > test.txt.gz

test.txt.gz to byte array > array.txt

array.txt:

{0x66,0x75,0x6e,0x63,0x74,0x69,0x6f,0x6e}

I couldn't seem to find any other questions on converting files to byte-arrays, or any npm packages. I have attempted to manually fs.readFileSync a file and use it in a function, but due to the special characters and encoding it failed.

How can I convert a file to a byte array in Node.js natively or using a package?

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

brandt

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 43

Total Questions: 90

Total Answers: 111

Location: Aruba

Member since Fri, Jun 24, 2022

2 Years ago

answered 7 Years ago rocioblancac · Accepted Answer

I think this accomplishes what you want, albeit a bit dirty.

FYI: fs.readFileSync returns a Buffer object, which you can convert to hex via Buffer.toString('hex')

var fs = require('fs');



function getByteArray(filePath){

    let fileData = fs.readFileSync(filePath).toString('hex');

    let result = []

    for (var i = 0; i < fileData.length; i+=2)

      result.push('0x'+fileData[i]+''+fileData[i+1])

    return result;

}



result = getByteArray('/path/to/file')

console.log(result)