[javascript] How to convert uint8 Array to base64 Encoded String?

I got a webSocket comunication, I recieve base64 encoded string, convert it to uint8 and work on it, but now I need to send back, I got the uint8 array, and need to convert it to base64 string, so I can send it. How can I make this convertion?

Here is a JS Function to this:

This function is needed because Chrome doesn't accept a base64 encoded string as value for applicationServerKey in pushManager.subscribe yet https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=802280

function urlBase64ToUint8Array(base64String) {
  var padding = '='.repeat((4 - base64String.length % 4) % 4);
  var base64 = (base64String + padding)
    .replace(/\-/g, '+')
    .replace(/_/g, '/');

  var rawData = window.atob(base64);
  var outputArray = new Uint8Array(rawData.length);

  for (var i = 0; i < rawData.length; ++i) {
    outputArray[i] = rawData.charCodeAt(i);
  }
  return outputArray;
}

npm install google-closure-library --save

require("google-closure-library");
goog.require('goog.crypt.base64');

var result =goog.crypt.base64.encodeByteArray(Uint8Array.of(1,83,27,99,102,66));
console.log(result);

$node index.js would write AVMbY2Y= to the console.

See here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Base64_encoding_and_decoding#Appendix.3A_Decode_a_Base64_string_to_Uint8Array_or_ArrayBuffer

(Decode a Base64 string to Uint8Array or ArrayBuffer with Unicode support)

To base64-encode a UInt8Array with arbitrary data (not necessarily UTF-8) using native browser functionality:

const base64_arraybuffer = async (data) => {
    // Use a FileReader to generate a base64 data URI
    const base64url = await new Promise((r) => {
        const reader = new FileReader()
        reader.onload = () => r(reader.result)
        reader.readAsDataURL(new Blob([data]))
    })

    /*
    The result looks like 
    "data:application/octet-stream;base64,<your base64 data>", 
    so we split off the beginning:
    */
    return base64url.split(",", 2)[1]
}

// example use:
await base64_arraybuffer(new UInt8Array([1,2,3,100,200]))

If your data may contain multi-byte sequences (not a plain ASCII sequence) and your browser has TextDecoder, then you should use that to decode your data (specify the required encoding for the TextDecoder):

var u8 = new Uint8Array([65, 66, 67, 68]);
var decoder = new TextDecoder('utf8');
var b64encoded = btoa(decoder.decode(u8));

If you need to support browsers that do not have TextDecoder (currently just IE and Edge), then the best option is to use a TextDecoder polyfill.

If your data contains plain ASCII (not multibyte Unicode/UTF-8) then there is a simple alternative using String.fromCharCode that should be fairly universally supported:

var ascii = new Uint8Array([65, 66, 67, 68]);
var b64encoded = btoa(String.fromCharCode.apply(null, ascii));

And to decode the base64 string back to a Uint8Array:

var u8_2 = new Uint8Array(atob(b64encoded).split("").map(function(c) {
    return c.charCodeAt(0); }));

If you have very large array buffers then the apply may fail and you may need to chunk the buffer (based on the one posted by @RohitSengar). Again, note that this is only correct if your buffer only contains non-multibyte ASCII characters:

function Uint8ToString(u8a){
  var CHUNK_SZ = 0x8000;
  var c = [];
  for (var i=0; i < u8a.length; i+=CHUNK_SZ) {
    c.push(String.fromCharCode.apply(null, u8a.subarray(i, i+CHUNK_SZ)));
  }
  return c.join("");
}
// Usage
var u8 = new Uint8Array([65, 66, 67, 68]);
var b64encoded = btoa(Uint8ToString(u8));

function Uint8ToBase64(u8Arr){
  var CHUNK_SIZE = 0x8000; //arbitrary number
  var index = 0;
  var length = u8Arr.length;
  var result = '';
  var slice;
  while (index < length) {
    slice = u8Arr.subarray(index, Math.min(index + CHUNK_SIZE, length)); 
    result += String.fromCharCode.apply(null, slice);
    index += CHUNK_SIZE;
  }
  return btoa(result);
}

You can use this function if you have a very large Uint8Array. This is for Javascript, can be useful in case of FileReader readAsArrayBuffer.

Use the following to convert uint8 array to base64 encoded string

function arrayBufferToBase64(buffer) {
            var binary = '';
            var bytes = [].slice.call(new Uint8Array(buffer));
            bytes.forEach((b) => binary += String.fromCharCode(b));
            return window.btoa(binary);
        };

If you are using Node.js then you can use this code to convert Uint8Array to base64

var b64 = Buffer.from(u8).toString('base64');

If all you want is a JS implementation of a base64-encoder, so that you can send data back, you can try the btoa function.

b64enc = btoa(uint);

A couple of quick notes on btoa - it's non-standard, so browsers aren't forced to support it. However, most browsers do. The big ones, at least. atob is the opposite conversion.

If you need a different implementation, or you find an edge-case where the browser has no idea what you're talking about, searching for a base64 encoder for JS wouldn't be too hard.

I think there are 3 of them hanging around on my company's website, for some reason...

Pure JS - no string middlestep (no btoa)

In below solution I omit conversion to string. IDEA is following:

• join 3 bytes (3 array elements) and you get 24-bits
• split 24bits to four 6-bit numbers (which take values from 0 to 63)
• use that numbers as index in base64 alphabet
• corner case: when input byte array the length is not divided by 3 then add = or == to result

Solution below works on 3-bytes chunks so it is good for large arrays. Similar solution to convert base64 to binary array (without atob) is HERE

function bytesArrToBase64(arr) {
  const abc = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"; // base64 alphabet
  const bin = n => n.toString(2).padStart(8,0); // convert num to 8-bit binary string
  const l = arr.length
  let result = '';

  for(let i=0; i<=(l-1)/3; i++) {
    let c1 = i*3+1>=l; // case when "=" is on end
    let c2 = i*3+2>=l; // case when "=" is on end
    let chunk = bin(arr[3*i]) + bin(c1? 0:arr[3*i+1]) + bin(c2? 0:arr[3*i+2]);
    let r = chunk.match(/.{1,6}/g).map((x,j)=> j==3&&c2 ? '=' :(j==2&&c1 ? '=':abc[+('0b'+x)]));  
    result += r.join('');
  }

  return result;
}


// ----------
// TEST
// ----------

let test = "Alice's Adventure in Wondeland.";
let testBytes = [...test].map(c=> c.charCodeAt(0) );

console.log('test string:', test);
console.log('bytes:', JSON.stringify(testBytes));
console.log('btoa            ', btoa(test));
console.log('bytesArrToBase64', bytesArrToBase64(testBytes));

Very simple solution and test for JavaScript!

ToBase64 = function (u8) {
    return btoa(String.fromCharCode.apply(null, u8));
}

FromBase64 = function (str) {
    return atob(str).split('').map(function (c) { return c.charCodeAt(0); });
}

var u8 = new Uint8Array(256);
for (var i = 0; i < 256; i++)
    u8[i] = i;

var b64 = ToBase64(u8);
console.debug(b64);
console.debug(FromBase64(b64));