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?

Answer

All solutions already proposed have severe problems. Some solutions fail to work on large arrays, some provide wrong output, some throw an error on btoa call if an intermediate string contains multibyte characters, some consume more memory than needed.

So I implemented a direct conversion function which just works regardless of the input. It converts about 5 million bytes per second on my machine.

https://gist.github.com/enepomnyaschih/72c423f727d395eeaa09697058238727

/*
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2020 Egor Nepomnyaschih
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
*/

/*
// This constant can also be computed with the following algorithm:
const base64abc = [],
	A = "A".charCodeAt(0),
	a = "a".charCodeAt(0),
	n = "0".charCodeAt(0);
for (let i = 0; i < 26; ++i) {
	base64abc.push(String.fromCharCode(A + i));
}
for (let i = 0; i < 26; ++i) {
	base64abc.push(String.fromCharCode(a + i));
}
for (let i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
	base64abc.push(String.fromCharCode(n + i));
}
base64abc.push("+");
base64abc.push("/");
*/
const base64abc = [
	"A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J", "K", "L", "M",
	"N", "O", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z",
	"a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j", "k", "l", "m",
	"n", "o", "p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "u", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z",
	"0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "+", "/"
];

/*
// This constant can also be computed with the following algorithm:
const l = 256, base64codes = new Uint8Array(l);
for (let i = 0; i < l; ++i) {
	base64codes[i] = 255; // invalid character
}
base64abc.forEach((char, index) => {
	base64codes[char.charCodeAt(0)] = index;
});
base64codes["=".charCodeAt(0)] = 0; // ignored anyway, so we just need to prevent an error
*/
const base64codes = [
	255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255,
	255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255,
	255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255, 62, 255, 255, 255, 63,
	52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 255, 255, 255, 0, 255, 255,
	255, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
	15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 255, 255, 255, 255, 255,
	255, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40,
	41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51
];

function getBase64Code(charCode) {
	if (charCode >= base64codes.length) {
		throw new Error("Unable to parse base64 string.");
	}
	const code = base64codes[charCode];
	if (code === 255) {
		throw new Error("Unable to parse base64 string.");
	}
	return code;
}

export function bytesToBase64(bytes) {
	let result = '', i, l = bytes.length;
	for (i = 2; i < l; i += 3) {
		result += base64abc[bytes[i - 2] >> 2];
		result += base64abc[((bytes[i - 2] & 0x03) << 4) | (bytes[i - 1] >> 4)];
		result += base64abc[((bytes[i - 1] & 0x0F) << 2) | (bytes[i] >> 6)];
		result += base64abc[bytes[i] & 0x3F];
	}
	if (i === l + 1) { // 1 octet yet to write
		result += base64abc[bytes[i - 2] >> 2];
		result += base64abc[(bytes[i - 2] & 0x03) << 4];
		result += "==";
	}
	if (i === l) { // 2 octets yet to write
		result += base64abc[bytes[i - 2] >> 2];
		result += base64abc[((bytes[i - 2] & 0x03) << 4) | (bytes[i - 1] >> 4)];
		result += base64abc[(bytes[i - 1] & 0x0F) << 2];
		result += "=";
	}
	return result;
}

export function base64ToBytes(str) {
	if (str.length % 4 !== 0) {
		throw new Error("Unable to parse base64 string.");
	}
	const index = str.indexOf("=");
	if (index !== -1 && index < str.length - 2) {
		throw new Error("Unable to parse base64 string.");
	}
	let missingOctets = str.endsWith("==") ? 2 : str.endsWith("=") ? 1 : 0,
		n = str.length,
		result = new Uint8Array(3 * (n / 4)),
		buffer;
	for (let i = 0, j = 0; i < n; i += 4, j += 3) {
		buffer =
			getBase64Code(str.charCodeAt(i)) << 18 |
			getBase64Code(str.charCodeAt(i + 1)) << 12 |
			getBase64Code(str.charCodeAt(i + 2)) << 6 |
			getBase64Code(str.charCodeAt(i + 3));
		result[j] = buffer >> 16;
		result[j + 1] = (buffer >> 8) & 0xFF;
		result[j + 2] = buffer & 0xFF;
	}
	return result.subarray(0, result.length - missingOctets);
}

export function base64encode(str, encoder = new TextEncoder()) {
	return bytesToBase64(encoder.encode(str));
}

export function base64decode(str, decoder = new TextDecoder()) {
	return decoder.decode(base64ToBytes(str));
}