ref-array

Create C typed "array" instances on top of Buffers

This module offers an "array" implementation on top of Node.js Buffers using the ref "type" interface.

Installation

Install with npm:

$ npm install ref-array

Examples

Basic usage

var ref = require('ref')
var ArrayType = require('ref-array')

// typedef
var int = ref.types.int

// define the "int[]" type
var IntArray = ArrayType(int)

// now we can create array instances; the constructor takes the same arguments
// the native JS Array class

var a = new IntArray(5) // by length
a.length // 5
a[0] = 0
a[1] = 1
a[2] = -1
a[3] = 2
a[4] = -2

var b = new IntArray([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]) // with an existing Array
b.length // 5
b[0] // 1
b[1] // 2
b[2] // 3
b[3] // 4
b[4] // 5

Reading a NULL-terminated Array

// sometimes you get a variable length array that is terminated by a NULL byte.
var buf = new Buffer(int.size * 3)
int.set(buf, int.size * 0, 5)
int.set(buf, int.size * 1, 8)
int.set(buf, int.size * 2, 0) // <- terminate with 0s

// you can create an array instance with the length automatically determined
var array = IntArray.untilZeros(buf)
console.log(array.length)
// 2
console.log(array)
// [ 5, 8 ]

With node-ffi