buffer

Not yet Library

A library of buffer functions.

Description

A buffer is an object that represents a fixed-size mutable block of memory. The buffer library provides functions for creation and manipulation of buffer objects, providing all its functions inside the global buffer variable.

Buffer is intended to be used a low-level binary data storage structure, replacing the uses of string.pack() and string.unpack(). Use cases include reading and writing existing binary formats, working with data in a more compact form, serialization to custom binary formats, and general work with native memory types like fixed-length integers and floats.

When passed through Roblox APIs, including sending a buffer through custom events, the identity of the buffer object is not preserved and the target will receive a copy. Similar to other limitations, the same buffer object cannot be used from multiple Actor scripts (Parallel Luau).

Many of the functions accept an offset in bytes from the start of the buffer. Offset of 0 from the start of the buffer memory block accesses the first byte. All offsets, counts and sizes should be non-negative integer numbers. If the bytes that are accessed by any read or write operation are outside the buffer memory, an error is thrown.

The read and write methods that work with integers and floats use little-endian encoding.

Functions

create Not yet Creates a buffer.

Creates a buffer.

Creates a buffer of the requested size with all bytes initialized to 0. Size limit is 1 GiB, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. Keep in mind that larger buffers might fail to allocate if device is running low on memory.

fromstring Not yet Creates a buffer from a string.

Creates a buffer from a string.

Creates a buffer initialized to the contents of the string. The size of the buffer equals the length of the string.

tostring Not yet Converts a buffer to a string.

Converts a buffer to a string.

Returns the buffer data as a string.

len Not yet Returns the size of the buffer in bytes.

Returns the size of the buffer in bytes.

readbits Not yet Reads a range of bits into an unsigned integer from the buffer based on a specific bitCount integer from 0 to 32, inclu…

Reads a range of bits into an unsigned integer from the buffer based on a specific bitCount integer from 0 to 32, inclusive. For example:

• buffer.readbits(b, 0, 8) is equivalent to Library.buffer.readu8(b, 0).
• buffer.readbits(b, 0, 16) is equivalent to Library.buffer.readu16(b, 0).
• buffer.readbits(b, 0, 32) is equivalent to Library.buffer.readu32(b, 0).
• buffer.readbits(b, 0, 24) reads 24 bits from the buffer.

Note that 0 bit width is supported only to not error in generalized cases where bit count is dynamic, and reading 0 bits returns 0. Also note that, since the max size of the buffer is 1 GB, bitOffset cannot be handled as a 32‑bit integer number like byte offset in other buffer functions.

readi8 Not yet Reads an 8-bit signed integer from the buffer.

Reads an 8-bit signed integer from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as an 8-bit signed integer and converting it into a number.

readu8 Not yet Reads an 8-bit unsigned integer from the buffer.

Reads an 8-bit unsigned integer from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as an 8-bit unsigned integer and converting it into a number.

readi16 Not yet Reads a 16-bit signed integer from the buffer.

Reads a 16-bit signed integer from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as a 16-bit signed integer and converting it into a number.

readu16 Not yet Reads a 16-bit unsigned integer from the buffer.

Reads a 16-bit unsigned integer from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as a 16-bit unsigned integer and converting it into a number.

readi32 Not yet Reads a 32-bit signed integer from the buffer.

Reads a 32-bit signed integer from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as a 32-bit signed integer and converting it into a number.

readu32 Not yet Reads a 32-bit unsigned integer from the buffer.

Reads a 32-bit unsigned integer from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as a 32-bit unsigned integer and converting it into a number.

readf32 Not yet Reads a 32-bit floating-point value from the buffer.

Reads a 32-bit floating-point value from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as a 32-bit floating-point value and converting it into a number. If the floating-point value matches any bit patterns that represent NaN (not a number), the returned value may be converted to a different quiet NaN representation.

readf64 Not yet Reads a 64-bit floating-point value from the buffer.

Reads a 64-bit floating-point value from the buffer.

Reads the data from the buffer by reinterpreting bytes at the offset as a 64-bit floating-point value and converting it into a number. If the floating-point value matches any bit patterns that represent NaN (not a number), the returned value may be converted to a different quiet NaN representation.

writebits Not yet Writes data to the buffer based on a specific bitCount integer from 0 to 32, inclusive.

Writes data to the buffer based on a specific bitCount integer from 0 to 32, inclusive. value is treated as an unsigned 32‑bit number and only bitCount least significant bits are written.

Note that 0 bit width is supported only to not error in generalized cases where bit count is dynamic, and writing 0 bits has no effect. Also note that, since the max size of the buffer is 1 GB, bitOffset cannot be handled as a 32‑bit integer number like byte offset in other buffer functions.

writei8 Not yet Writes an 8-bit signed integer to the buffer.

Writes an 8-bit signed integer to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into an 8-bit signed integer and writing a single byte.

writeu8 Not yet Writes an 8-bit unsigned integer to the buffer.

Writes an 8-bit unsigned integer to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into an 8-bit unsigned integer and writing a single byte.

writei16 Not yet Writes a 16-bit signed integer to the buffer.

Writes a 16-bit signed integer to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into a 16-bit signed integer and reinterpreting it as individual bytes.

writeu16 Not yet Writes a 16-bit unsigned integer to the buffer.

Writes a 16-bit unsigned integer to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into a 16-bit unsigned integer and reinterpreting it as individual bytes.

writei32 Not yet Writes a 32-bit signed integer to the buffer.

Writes a 32-bit signed integer to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into a 32-bit signed integer and reinterpreting it as individual bytes.

writeu32 Not yet Writes a 32-bit unsigned integer to the buffer.

Writes a 32-bit unsigned integer to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into a 32-bit unsigned integer and reinterpreting it as individual bytes.

writef32 Not yet Writes a 32-bit floating-point value to the buffer.

Writes a 32-bit floating-point value to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into a 32-bit floating-point value and reinterpreting it as individual bytes.

writef64 Not yet Writes a 64-bit floating-point value to the buffer.

Writes a 64-bit floating-point value to the buffer.

Writes data to the buffer by converting the number into a 64-bit floating-point value and reinterpreting it as individual bytes.

readstring Not yet Reads a string from the buffer.

Reads a string from the buffer.

Reads a string of length count from the buffer at the specified offset.

writestring Not yet Writes a string to the buffer.

Writes a string to the buffer.

Writes data from a string into the buffer at the specified offset. If an optional count is specified, only count bytes are taken from the string.

copy Not yet Copies bytes between buffers.

Copies bytes between buffers.

Copies count bytes from source starting at offset sourceOffset into the target at targetOffset.

It's possible for source and target to be the same. Copying an overlapping region inside the same buffer acts as if the source region is copied into a temporary buffer and then that buffer is copied over to the target.

fill Not yet Sets a region of the buffer memory to some 8-bit unsigned integer value.

Sets a region of the buffer memory to some 8-bit unsigned integer value.

Sets count bytes in the buffer starting at the specified offset to value.

Roblox reference: buffer