DataView

The DataView view provides a low-level interface for reading data from and writing it to an ArrayBuffer.

new DataView(buffer [, byteOffset [, byteLength]])

buffer

An existing ArrayBuffer to use as the storage for the new DataView object.

byteOffset Optional

The offset, in bytes, to the first byte in the specified buffer for the new view to reference. If not specified, the view of the buffer will start with the first byte.

byteLength Optional

The number of elements in the byte array. If unspecified, length of the view will match the buffer's length.

A new DataView object representing the specified data buffer.

RangeError

Thrown if the byteOffset and byteLength result in the specified view extending past the end of the buffer.

You'll probably need to detect the type of architecture your script is running, here is a little trick to check it. See Endianness for more information.

var littleEndian = (function() {
  var buffer = new ArrayBuffer(2);
  new DataView(buffer).setInt16(0, 256, true);
  return new Int16Array(buffer)[0] === 256;
})();
console.log(littleEndian); // true or false

DataView.length

The DataView constructor's length property whose value is 3.

DataView.prototype

Allows the addition of properties to all DataView objects.

All DataView instances inherit from DataView.prototype.

{{page('en-US/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/DataView/prototype','Properties')}}

{{page('en-US/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/DataView/prototype','Methods')}}

var buffer = new ArrayBuffer(16);
var dv = new DataView(buffer, 0);

dv.setInt16(1, 42);
dv.getInt16(1); //42

Starting with Gecko / SpiderMonkey 40 (Firefox 40 / Thunderbird 40 / SeaMonkey 2.37), DataView requires to be constructed with a new operator. Calling DataView() as a function without new, will throw a TypeError from now on.

var dv = DataView(buffer, 0);
// TypeError: calling a builtin DataView constructor without new is forbidden

var dv = new DataView(buffer, 0);

• jDataView: JavaScript library that polyfills and extends the DataView API to all browsers and Node.js.