Develop Reference

Having Trouble Parsing a Base64 Encoded Array into Geometry Data [duplicate]

I need to convert a base64 encode string into an ArrayBuffer.
The base64 strings are user input, they will be copy and pasted from an email, so they're not there when the page is loaded.
I would like to do this in javascript without making an ajax call to the server if possible.
I found those links interesting, but they didt'n help me:
ArrayBuffer to base64 encoded string
this is about the opposite conversion, from ArrayBuffer to base64, not the other way round
http://jsperf.com/json-vs-base64/2
this looks good but i can't figure out how to use the code.
Is there an easy (maybe native) way to do the conversion? thanks

Try this:
function _base64ToArrayBuffer(base64) {
var binary_string = window.atob(base64);
var len = binary_string.length;
var bytes = new Uint8Array(len);
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
bytes[i] = binary_string.charCodeAt(i);
}
return bytes.buffer;
}

Using TypedArray.from:
Uint8Array.from(atob(base64_string), c => c.charCodeAt(0))
Performance to be compared with the for loop version of Goran.it answer.

For Node.js users:
const myBuffer = Buffer.from(someBase64String, 'base64');
myBuffer will be of type Buffer which is a subclass of Uint8Array. Unfortunately, Uint8Array is NOT an ArrayBuffer as the OP was asking for. But when manipulating an ArrayBuffer I almost always wrap it with Uint8Array or something similar, so it should be close to what's being asked for.

Goran.it's answer does not work because of unicode problem in javascript - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WindowBase64/Base64_encoding_and_decoding.
I ended up using the function given on Daniel Guerrero's blog: http://blog.danguer.com/2011/10/24/base64-binary-decoding-in-javascript/
Function is listed on github link: https://github.com/danguer/blog-examples/blob/master/js/base64-binary.js
Use these lines
var uintArray = Base64Binary.decode(base64_string);
var byteArray = Base64Binary.decodeArrayBuffer(base64_string);

Async solution, it's better when the data is big:
// base64 to buffer
function base64ToBufferAsync(base64) {
var dataUrl = "data:application/octet-binary;base64," + base64;
fetch(dataUrl)
.then(res => res.arrayBuffer())
.then(buffer => {
console.log("base64 to buffer: " + new Uint8Array(buffer));
})
}
// buffer to base64
function bufferToBase64Async( buffer ) {
var blob = new Blob([buffer], {type:'application/octet-binary'});
console.log("buffer to blob:" + blob)
var fileReader = new FileReader();
fileReader.onload = function() {
var dataUrl = fileReader.result;
console.log("blob to dataUrl: " + dataUrl);
var base64 = dataUrl.substr(dataUrl.indexOf(',')+1)
console.log("dataUrl to base64: " + base64);
};
fileReader.readAsDataURL(blob);
}

Javascript is a fine development environment so it seems odd than it doesn't provide a solution to this small problem. The solutions offered elsewhere on this page are potentially slow. Here is my solution. It employs the inbuilt functionality that decodes base64 image and sound data urls.
var req = new XMLHttpRequest;
req.open('GET', "data:application/octet;base64," + base64Data);
req.responseType = 'arraybuffer';
req.onload = function fileLoaded(e)
{
var byteArray = new Uint8Array(e.target.response);
// var shortArray = new Int16Array(e.target.response);
// var unsignedShortArray = new Int16Array(e.target.response);
// etc.
}
req.send();
The send request fails if the base 64 string is badly formed.
The mime type (application/octet) is probably unnecessary.
Tested in chrome. Should work in other browsers.

Pure JS - no string middlestep (no atob)
I write following function which convert base64 in direct way (without conversion to string at the middlestep). IDEA
get 4 base64 characters chunk
find index of each character in base64 alphabet
convert index to 6-bit number (binary string)
join four 6 bit numbers which gives 24-bit numer (stored as binary string)
split 24-bit string to three 8-bit and covert each to number and store them in output array
corner case: if input base64 string ends with one/two = char, remove one/two numbers from output array
Below solution allows to process large input base64 strings. Similar function for convert bytes to base64 without btoa is HERE
function base64ToBytesArr(str) {
const abc = [..."ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"]; // base64 alphabet
let result = [];
for(let i=0; i<str.length/4; i++) {
let chunk = [...str.slice(4*i,4*i+4)]
let bin = chunk.map(x=> abc.indexOf(x).toString(2).padStart(6,0)).join('');
let bytes = bin.match(/.{1,8}/g).map(x=> +('0b'+x));
result.push(...bytes.slice(0,3 - (str[4*i+2]=="=") - (str[4*i+3]=="=")));
}
return result;
}
// --------
// TEST
// --------
let test = "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.";
console.log('test string:', test.length, test);
let b64_btoa = btoa(test);
console.log('encoded string:', b64_btoa);
let decodedBytes = base64ToBytesArr(b64_btoa); // decode base64 to array of bytes
console.log('decoded bytes:', JSON.stringify(decodedBytes));
let decodedTest = decodedBytes.map(b => String.fromCharCode(b) ).join``;
console.log('Uint8Array', JSON.stringify(new Uint8Array(decodedBytes)));
console.log('decoded string:', decodedTest.length, decodedTest);
Caution!
If you want to decode base64 to STRING (not bytes array) and you know that result contains utf8 characters then atob will fail in general e.g. for character 💩 the atob("8J+SqQ==") will give wrong result . In this case you can use above solution and convert result bytes array to string in proper way e.g. :
function base64ToBytesArr(str) {
const abc = [..."ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"]; // base64 alphabet
let result = [];
for(let i=0; i<str.length/4; i++) {
let chunk = [...str.slice(4*i,4*i+4)]
let bin = chunk.map(x=> abc.indexOf(x).toString(2).padStart(6,0)).join('');
let bytes = bin.match(/.{1,8}/g).map(x=> +('0b'+x));
result.push(...bytes.slice(0,3 - (str[4*i+2]=="=") - (str[4*i+3]=="=")));
}
return result;
}
// --------
// TEST
// --------
let testB64 = "8J+SqQ=="; // for string: "💩";
console.log('input base64 :', testB64);
let decodedBytes = base64ToBytesArr(testB64); // decode base64 to array of bytes
console.log('decoded bytes :', JSON.stringify(decodedBytes));
let result = new TextDecoder("utf-8").decode(new Uint8Array(decodedBytes));
console.log('properly decoded string :', result);
let result_atob = atob(testB64);
console.log('decoded by atob :', result_atob);
Snippets tested 2022-08-04 on: chrome 103.0.5060.134 (arm64), safari 15.2, firefox 103.0.1 (64 bit), edge 103.0.1264.77 (arm64), and node-js v12.16.1

I would strongly suggest using an npm package implementing correctly the base64 specification.
The best one I know is rfc4648
The problem is that btoa and atob use binary strings instead of Uint8Array and trying to convert to and from it is cumbersome. Also there is a lot of bad packages in npm for that. I lose a lot of time before finding that one.
The creators of that specific package did a simple thing: they took the specification of Base64 (which is here by the way) and implemented it correctly from the beginning to the end. (Including other formats in the specification that are also useful like Base64-url, Base32, etc ...) That doesn't seem a lot but apparently that was too much to ask to the bunch of other libraries.
So yeah, I know I'm doing a bit of proselytism but if you want to avoid losing your time too just use rfc4648.

I used the accepted answer to this question to create base64Url string <-> arrayBuffer conversions in the realm of base64Url data transmitted via ASCII-cookie [atob, btoa are base64[with +/]<->js binary string], so I decided to post the code.
Many of us may want both conversions and client-server communication may use the base64Url version (though a cookie may contain +/ as well as -_ characters if I understand well, only ",;\ characters and some wicked characters from the 128 ASCII are disallowed). But a url cannot contain / character, hence the wider use of b64 url version which of course not what atob-btoa supports...
Seeing other comments, I would like to stress that my use case here is base64Url data transmission via url/cookie and trying to use this crypto data with the js crypto api (2017) hence the need for ArrayBuffer representation and b64u <-> arrBuff conversions... if array buffers represent other than base64 (part of ascii) this conversion wont work since atob, btoa is limited to ascii(128). Check out an appropriate converter like below:
The buff -> b64u version is from a tweet from Mathias Bynens, thanks for that one (too)! He also wrote a base64 encoder/decoder:
https://github.com/mathiasbynens/base64
Coming from java, it may help when trying to understand the code that java byte[] is practically js Int8Array (signed int) but we use here the unsigned version Uint8Array since js conversions work with them. They are both 256bit, so we call it byte[] in js now...
The code is from a module class, that is why static.
//utility
/**
* Array buffer to base64Url string
* - arrBuff->byte[]->biStr->b64->b64u
* #param arrayBuffer
* #returns {string}
* #private
*/
static _arrayBufferToBase64Url(arrayBuffer) {
console.log('base64Url from array buffer:', arrayBuffer);
let base64Url = window.btoa(String.fromCodePoint(...new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer)));
base64Url = base64Url.replaceAll('+', '-');
base64Url = base64Url.replaceAll('/', '_');
console.log('base64Url:', base64Url);
return base64Url;
}
/**
* Base64Url string to array buffer
* - b64u->b64->biStr->byte[]->arrBuff
* #param base64Url
* #returns {ArrayBufferLike}
* #private
*/
static _base64UrlToArrayBuffer(base64Url) {
console.log('array buffer from base64Url:', base64Url);
let base64 = base64Url.replaceAll('-', '+');
base64 = base64.replaceAll('_', '/');
const binaryString = window.atob(base64);
const length = binaryString.length;
const bytes = new Uint8Array(length);
for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
bytes[i] = binaryString.charCodeAt(i);
}
console.log('array buffer:', bytes.buffer);
return bytes.buffer;
}

made a ArrayBuffer from a base64:
function base64ToArrayBuffer(base64) {
var binary_string = window.atob(base64);
var len = binary_string.length;
var bytes = new Uint8Array(len);
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
bytes[i] = binary_string.charCodeAt(i);
}
return bytes.buffer;
}
I was trying to use above code and It's working fine.

The result of atob is a string that is separated with some comma
,
A simpler way is to convert this string to a json array string and after that parse it to a byteArray
below code can simply be used to convert base64 to an array of number
let byteArray = JSON.parse('['+atob(base64)+']');
let buffer = new Uint8Array(byteArray);

Solution without atob
I've seen many people complaining about using atob and btoa in the replies. There are some issues to take into account when using them.
There's a solution without using them in the MDN page about Base64. Below you can find the code to convert a base64 string into a Uint8Array copied from the docs.
Note that the function below returns a Uint8Array. To get the ArrayBuffer version you just need to do uintArray.buffer.
function b64ToUint6(nChr) {
return nChr > 64 && nChr < 91
? nChr - 65
: nChr > 96 && nChr < 123
? nChr - 71
: nChr > 47 && nChr < 58
? nChr + 4
: nChr === 43
? 62
: nChr === 47
? 63
: 0;
}
function base64DecToArr(sBase64, nBlocksSize) {
const sB64Enc = sBase64.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9+/]/g, "");
const nInLen = sB64Enc.length;
const nOutLen = nBlocksSize
? Math.ceil(((nInLen * 3 + 1) >> 2) / nBlocksSize) * nBlocksSize
: (nInLen * 3 + 1) >> 2;
const taBytes = new Uint8Array(nOutLen);
let nMod3;
let nMod4;
let nUint24 = 0;
let nOutIdx = 0;
for (let nInIdx = 0; nInIdx < nInLen; nInIdx++) {
nMod4 = nInIdx & 3;
nUint24 |= b64ToUint6(sB64Enc.charCodeAt(nInIdx)) << (6 * (3 - nMod4));
if (nMod4 === 3 || nInLen - nInIdx === 1) {
nMod3 = 0;
while (nMod3 < 3 && nOutIdx < nOutLen) {
taBytes[nOutIdx] = (nUint24 >>> ((16 >>> nMod3) & 24)) & 255;
nMod3++;
nOutIdx++;
}
nUint24 = 0;
}
}
return taBytes;
}
If you're interested in the reverse operation, ArrayBuffer to base64, you can find how to do it in the same link.

How to convert a string to file with UTF-32LE encoding in JS?

Based on this thread I tried to create a blob with utf 32 encoding and BOM of FF FE 00 00(UTF-32LE representation) as follows:
var BOM = new Uint8Array([0xFF,0xFE,0x00,0x00]);
var b = new Blob([ BOM, "➀➁➂ Test" ]);
var url = URL.createObjectURL(b);
open(url);
But the file content gets corrupted and gets changed to a different language. What is the correct way to convert a string to a file with utf-32le format?
Edit:
Im trying this in browser environment

Note: I'm assuming you're doing this in a browser, since you used Blob and Node.js only recently got Blob support, and you referenced a question doing this in a browser.
You're just setting the BOM, you're not handling converting the data. As it says in MDN's documentation, any strings in the array will be encoded using UTF-8. So you have a UTF-32LE BOM followed by UTF-8 data.
Surprisingly (to me), the browser platform doesn't seem to have a general-purpose text encoder (TextEncoder just encodes UTF-8), but JavaScript strings provide a means of iterating through their code points (not just code units) and getting the actual Unicode code point value. (If those terms are unfamiliar, my blog post What is a string? may help.) So you can get that number and convert it into four little-endian bytes. DataView provides a convenient way to do that.
Finally, you'll want to specify the charset in the blob's MIME type (the BOM itself isn't sufficient). I expected text/plain; charset=UTF-32LE to work, but it doesn't, at least not in Chromium browsers. There's probably some legacy reason for that. text/html works (on its own), but we may as well be specific and do text/html; charset=UTF-32LE.
See comments:
function getUTF32LEUrl(str) {
// The UTF-32LE BOM
const BOM = new Uint8Array([0xFF,0xFE,0x00,0x00]);
// A byte array and DataView to use when converting 32-bit LE to bytes;
// they share an underlying buffer
const uint8 = new Uint8Array(4);
const view = new DataView(uint8.buffer);
// Convert the payload to UTF-32LE
const utf32le = Array.from(str, (ch) => {
// Get the code point
const codePoint = ch.codePointAt(0);
// Write it as a 32-bit LE value in the buffer
view.setUint32(0, codePoint, true);
// Read it as individual bytes and create a plain array of them
return Array.from(uint8);
}).flat(); // Flatten the array of arrays into one long byte sequence
// Create the blob and URL
const b = new Blob(
[ BOM, new Uint8Array(utf32le)],
{ type: "text/html; charset=UTF-32LE"} // Set the MIME type
);
const url = URL.createObjectURL(b);
return url;
}
Beware, though, that the specification "prohibits" browsers from supporting UTF-32 (either LE or BE) for HTML:
13.2.3.3 Character encodings
User agents must support the encodings defined in Encoding, including, but not limited to, UTF-8, ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-8, windows-874, windows-1250, windows-1251, windows-1252, windows-1254, windows-1255, windows-1256, windows-1257, windows-1258, GBK, Big5, ISO-2022-JP, Shift_JIS, EUC-KR, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE/LE, and x-user-defined. User agents must not support other encodings.
Note: The above prohibits supporting, for example, CESU-8, UTF-7, BOCU-1, SCSU, EBCDIC, and UTF-32. This specification does not make any attempt to support prohibited encodings in its algorithms; support and use of prohibited encodings would thus lead to unexpected behavior. [CESU8] [UTF7] [BOCU1] [SCSU]
You might be better off with one of the UTF-16s, given that you're using window.open to open the result. (For downloading, UTF-32 is fine if you really want a UTF-32 file.)
Sadly, Stack Snippets won't let you open a new window, but here's a full example you can copy and paste to run locally:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge">
<title>UTF-32 Conversion</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.png">
<style>
body, html {
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
*, *:before, *:after {
box-sizing: inherit;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<input type="button" value="Open" id="open">
<input type="button" value="Download" id="download">
<script type="module">
function getUTF32LEUrl(str, mimeType) {
// The UTF-32LE BOM
const BOM = new Uint8Array([0xFF,0xFE,0x00,0x00]);
// A byte array and DataView to use when converting 32-bit LE to bytes;
// they share an underlying buffer
const uint8 = new Uint8Array(4);
const view = new DataView(uint8.buffer);
// Convert the payload to UTF-32LE
const utf32le = Array.from(str, (ch) => {
// Get the code point
const codePoint = ch.codePointAt(0);
// Write it as a 32-bit LE value in the buffer
view.setUint32(0, codePoint, true);
// Read it as individual bytes and create a plain array of them
return Array.from(uint8);
}).flat(); // Flatten the array of arrays into one long byte sequence
// Create the blob and URL
const b = new Blob(
[ BOM, new Uint8Array(utf32le)],
mimeType // Set the MIME type
);
const url = URL.createObjectURL(b);
return url;
}
document.getElementById("open").addEventListener("click", () => {
const str = "➀➁➂ Test";
const url = getUTF32LEUrl(str, { type: "text/html; charset=UTF-32LE" });
window.open(url);
});
document.getElementById("download").addEventListener("click", () => {
const str = "➀➁➂ Test";
const url = getUTF32LEUrl(str, { type: "text/plain; charset=UTF-32LE" });
const a = document.createElement("a");
a.download = "utf-32_file.txt";
a.href = url;
a.click();
document.body.removeChild(a);
});
</script>
</body>
</html>

I tried something like this...
var fs = require('fs');
var iconv = require('iconv-lite');
var str = '你好，世界';
var buf = iconv.encode(str, 'utf-32le');
fs.writeFileSync('test.txt', buf);

Javascript - Getting null when I expect number

I have some Javascript that hashes. msgBuffer definitely has bytes in it after the hash, but in the following code, the nonce ends up null. What do I need to do to add the first byte of msgBuffer to the nonce?
var msgBuffer = await crypto.subtle.digest('SHA-256', toHash); //returns ArrayBuffer
var nonce = 0;
nonce += msgBuffer[0]; // results in null

await crypto.subtle.digest('SHA-256', toHash) would return ArrayBuffer.
You should first convert it to proper type, and then get the value.
e.g. do this.
var msgBuffer = await crypto.subtle.digest('SHA-256', toHash);
var myArr = new Uint8Array(msgBuffer);
var nonce = 0;
nonce += myArr[0];
I used Uint8Array, here because for crypto.subtle.digest this seems an appropriate choice, but for other use cases and types you expect in an ArrayBuffer in general, you should use the type array views.

Javascript string to Base64 UTF-16BE

I'm trying to convert a string into BASE64 and a charset of utf-16 Big Endian in order to send it using an sms API.
I'm not being able to do so in Javascript.
This is the original js string I want to send in the sms:
const originalString = 'Teste 5% áàÁÀ éèÉÈ íìÍÌ óòÓÒ úùÚÙ çÇ ãà ?!,;';
Using btoa(originalString) I get VGVzdGUgNSUyNSDh4MHAIOnoycgg7ezNzCDz8tPSIPr52tkg58cg48MgPyEsOw== that is not what I need...
I used an online converter to that purpose and this is the correct value:
AFQAZQBzAHQAZQAgADUAJQAgAOEA4ADBAMAAIADpAOgAyQDIACAA7QDsAM0AzAAgAPMA8gDTANIAIAD6APkA2gDZACAA5wDHACAA4wDDACAAPwAhACwAOw==
I tested sending an sms with it and it works fine.

To get the UTF-16 version of the string, we need to map all its characters to their charCodeAt(0) value.
From there, we can build an Uint16Array that would hold an UTF-16LE text file.
We just need to swap all the items in that Uint16Array to get the UTF-16BE version.
Then it's just a matter to encode that to base64.
const originalString = 'Teste 5% áàÁÀ éèÉÈ íìÍÌ óòÓÒ úùÚÙ çÇ ãà ?!,;';
const expectedString = "AFQAZQBzAHQAZQAgADUAJQAgAOEA4ADBAMAAIADpAOgAyQDIACAA7QDsAM0AzAAgAPMA8gDTANIAIAD6APkA2gDZACAA5wDHACAA4wDDACAAPwAhACwAOw==";
const codePoints = originalString.split('').map( char => char.charCodeAt(0) );
const swapped = codePoints.map( val => (val>>8) | (val<<8) );
const arr_BE = new Uint16Array( swapped );
// ArrayBuffer to base64 borrowed from https://stackoverflow.com/a/42334410/3702797
const result = btoa(
new Uint8Array(arr_BE.buffer)
.reduce((data, byte) => data + String.fromCharCode(byte), '')
);
console.log( 'same strings:', result === expectedString );
console.log( result );

This isn't easy as the encoding UTF16BE has little to no support in javascript.
The challenge is converting the string into a buffer of bytes; once you have it in a buffer, converting it to base64 is easy. One way you can do this is by using a library to add support for UTF16BE, like iconv-lite.
Here is an example you can run in node:
const iconv = require('iconv-lite');
const originalString = 'Teste 5% áàÁÀ éèÉÈ íìÍÌ óòÓÒ úùÚÙ çÇ ãà ?!,;';
const buffer = iconv.encode(originalString, 'utf16be');
console.log(buffer.toString('base64'));
You can see a demo of it here: https://repl.it/#RobBrander/SelfishForkedAlphatest
Also, here is a great explanation of base64 encoding of UTF16BE: https://crawshaw.io/blog/utf7

Convert base64 string to ArrayBuffer

I need to convert a base64 encode string into an ArrayBuffer.
The base64 strings are user input, they will be copy and pasted from an email, so they're not there when the page is loaded.
I would like to do this in javascript without making an ajax call to the server if possible.
I found those links interesting, but they didt'n help me:
ArrayBuffer to base64 encoded string
this is about the opposite conversion, from ArrayBuffer to base64, not the other way round
http://jsperf.com/json-vs-base64/2
this looks good but i can't figure out how to use the code.
Is there an easy (maybe native) way to do the conversion? thanks

Try this:
function _base64ToArrayBuffer(base64) {
var binary_string = window.atob(base64);
var len = binary_string.length;
var bytes = new Uint8Array(len);
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
bytes[i] = binary_string.charCodeAt(i);
}
return bytes.buffer;
}

Using TypedArray.from:
Uint8Array.from(atob(base64_string), c => c.charCodeAt(0))
Performance to be compared with the for loop version of Goran.it answer.

For Node.js users:
const myBuffer = Buffer.from(someBase64String, 'base64');
myBuffer will be of type Buffer which is a subclass of Uint8Array. Unfortunately, Uint8Array is NOT an ArrayBuffer as the OP was asking for. But when manipulating an ArrayBuffer I almost always wrap it with Uint8Array or something similar, so it should be close to what's being asked for.

Goran.it's answer does not work because of unicode problem in javascript - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WindowBase64/Base64_encoding_and_decoding.
I ended up using the function given on Daniel Guerrero's blog: http://blog.danguer.com/2011/10/24/base64-binary-decoding-in-javascript/
Function is listed on github link: https://github.com/danguer/blog-examples/blob/master/js/base64-binary.js
Use these lines
var uintArray = Base64Binary.decode(base64_string);
var byteArray = Base64Binary.decodeArrayBuffer(base64_string);

Async solution, it's better when the data is big:
// base64 to buffer
function base64ToBufferAsync(base64) {
var dataUrl = "data:application/octet-binary;base64," + base64;
fetch(dataUrl)
.then(res => res.arrayBuffer())
.then(buffer => {
console.log("base64 to buffer: " + new Uint8Array(buffer));
})
}
// buffer to base64
function bufferToBase64Async( buffer ) {
var blob = new Blob([buffer], {type:'application/octet-binary'});
console.log("buffer to blob:" + blob)
var fileReader = new FileReader();
fileReader.onload = function() {
var dataUrl = fileReader.result;
console.log("blob to dataUrl: " + dataUrl);
var base64 = dataUrl.substr(dataUrl.indexOf(',')+1)
console.log("dataUrl to base64: " + base64);
};
fileReader.readAsDataURL(blob);
}

Javascript is a fine development environment so it seems odd than it doesn't provide a solution to this small problem. The solutions offered elsewhere on this page are potentially slow. Here is my solution. It employs the inbuilt functionality that decodes base64 image and sound data urls.
var req = new XMLHttpRequest;
req.open('GET', "data:application/octet;base64," + base64Data);
req.responseType = 'arraybuffer';
req.onload = function fileLoaded(e)
{
var byteArray = new Uint8Array(e.target.response);
// var shortArray = new Int16Array(e.target.response);
// var unsignedShortArray = new Int16Array(e.target.response);
// etc.
}
req.send();
The send request fails if the base 64 string is badly formed.
The mime type (application/octet) is probably unnecessary.
Tested in chrome. Should work in other browsers.

Pure JS - no string middlestep (no atob)
I write following function which convert base64 in direct way (without conversion to string at the middlestep). IDEA
get 4 base64 characters chunk
find index of each character in base64 alphabet
convert index to 6-bit number (binary string)
join four 6 bit numbers which gives 24-bit numer (stored as binary string)
split 24-bit string to three 8-bit and covert each to number and store them in output array
corner case: if input base64 string ends with one/two = char, remove one/two numbers from output array
Below solution allows to process large input base64 strings. Similar function for convert bytes to base64 without btoa is HERE
function base64ToBytesArr(str) {
const abc = [..."ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"]; // base64 alphabet
let result = [];
for(let i=0; i<str.length/4; i++) {
let chunk = [...str.slice(4*i,4*i+4)]
let bin = chunk.map(x=> abc.indexOf(x).toString(2).padStart(6,0)).join('');
let bytes = bin.match(/.{1,8}/g).map(x=> +('0b'+x));
result.push(...bytes.slice(0,3 - (str[4*i+2]=="=") - (str[4*i+3]=="=")));
}
return result;
}
// --------
// TEST
// --------
let test = "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.";
console.log('test string:', test.length, test);
let b64_btoa = btoa(test);
console.log('encoded string:', b64_btoa);
let decodedBytes = base64ToBytesArr(b64_btoa); // decode base64 to array of bytes
console.log('decoded bytes:', JSON.stringify(decodedBytes));
let decodedTest = decodedBytes.map(b => String.fromCharCode(b) ).join``;
console.log('Uint8Array', JSON.stringify(new Uint8Array(decodedBytes)));
console.log('decoded string:', decodedTest.length, decodedTest);
Caution!
If you want to decode base64 to STRING (not bytes array) and you know that result contains utf8 characters then atob will fail in general e.g. for character 💩 the atob("8J+SqQ==") will give wrong result . In this case you can use above solution and convert result bytes array to string in proper way e.g. :
function base64ToBytesArr(str) {
const abc = [..."ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"]; // base64 alphabet
let result = [];
for(let i=0; i<str.length/4; i++) {
let chunk = [...str.slice(4*i,4*i+4)]
let bin = chunk.map(x=> abc.indexOf(x).toString(2).padStart(6,0)).join('');
let bytes = bin.match(/.{1,8}/g).map(x=> +('0b'+x));
result.push(...bytes.slice(0,3 - (str[4*i+2]=="=") - (str[4*i+3]=="=")));
}
return result;
}
// --------
// TEST
// --------
let testB64 = "8J+SqQ=="; // for string: "💩";
console.log('input base64 :', testB64);
let decodedBytes = base64ToBytesArr(testB64); // decode base64 to array of bytes
console.log('decoded bytes :', JSON.stringify(decodedBytes));
let result = new TextDecoder("utf-8").decode(new Uint8Array(decodedBytes));
console.log('properly decoded string :', result);
let result_atob = atob(testB64);
console.log('decoded by atob :', result_atob);
Snippets tested 2022-08-04 on: chrome 103.0.5060.134 (arm64), safari 15.2, firefox 103.0.1 (64 bit), edge 103.0.1264.77 (arm64), and node-js v12.16.1

I would strongly suggest using an npm package implementing correctly the base64 specification.
The best one I know is rfc4648
The problem is that btoa and atob use binary strings instead of Uint8Array and trying to convert to and from it is cumbersome. Also there is a lot of bad packages in npm for that. I lose a lot of time before finding that one.
The creators of that specific package did a simple thing: they took the specification of Base64 (which is here by the way) and implemented it correctly from the beginning to the end. (Including other formats in the specification that are also useful like Base64-url, Base32, etc ...) That doesn't seem a lot but apparently that was too much to ask to the bunch of other libraries.
So yeah, I know I'm doing a bit of proselytism but if you want to avoid losing your time too just use rfc4648.

I used the accepted answer to this question to create base64Url string <-> arrayBuffer conversions in the realm of base64Url data transmitted via ASCII-cookie [atob, btoa are base64[with +/]<->js binary string], so I decided to post the code.
Many of us may want both conversions and client-server communication may use the base64Url version (though a cookie may contain +/ as well as -_ characters if I understand well, only ",;\ characters and some wicked characters from the 128 ASCII are disallowed). But a url cannot contain / character, hence the wider use of b64 url version which of course not what atob-btoa supports...
Seeing other comments, I would like to stress that my use case here is base64Url data transmission via url/cookie and trying to use this crypto data with the js crypto api (2017) hence the need for ArrayBuffer representation and b64u <-> arrBuff conversions... if array buffers represent other than base64 (part of ascii) this conversion wont work since atob, btoa is limited to ascii(128). Check out an appropriate converter like below:
The buff -> b64u version is from a tweet from Mathias Bynens, thanks for that one (too)! He also wrote a base64 encoder/decoder:
https://github.com/mathiasbynens/base64
Coming from java, it may help when trying to understand the code that java byte[] is practically js Int8Array (signed int) but we use here the unsigned version Uint8Array since js conversions work with them. They are both 256bit, so we call it byte[] in js now...
The code is from a module class, that is why static.
//utility
/**
* Array buffer to base64Url string
* - arrBuff->byte[]->biStr->b64->b64u
* #param arrayBuffer
* #returns {string}
* #private
*/
static _arrayBufferToBase64Url(arrayBuffer) {
console.log('base64Url from array buffer:', arrayBuffer);
let base64Url = window.btoa(String.fromCodePoint(...new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer)));
base64Url = base64Url.replaceAll('+', '-');
base64Url = base64Url.replaceAll('/', '_');
console.log('base64Url:', base64Url);
return base64Url;
}
/**
* Base64Url string to array buffer
* - b64u->b64->biStr->byte[]->arrBuff
* #param base64Url
* #returns {ArrayBufferLike}
* #private
*/
static _base64UrlToArrayBuffer(base64Url) {
console.log('array buffer from base64Url:', base64Url);
let base64 = base64Url.replaceAll('-', '+');
base64 = base64.replaceAll('_', '/');
const binaryString = window.atob(base64);
const length = binaryString.length;
const bytes = new Uint8Array(length);
for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
bytes[i] = binaryString.charCodeAt(i);
}
console.log('array buffer:', bytes.buffer);
return bytes.buffer;
}

made a ArrayBuffer from a base64:
function base64ToArrayBuffer(base64) {
var binary_string = window.atob(base64);
var len = binary_string.length;
var bytes = new Uint8Array(len);
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
bytes[i] = binary_string.charCodeAt(i);
}
return bytes.buffer;
}
I was trying to use above code and It's working fine.

The result of atob is a string that is separated with some comma
,
A simpler way is to convert this string to a json array string and after that parse it to a byteArray
below code can simply be used to convert base64 to an array of number
let byteArray = JSON.parse('['+atob(base64)+']');
let buffer = new Uint8Array(byteArray);

Solution without atob
I've seen many people complaining about using atob and btoa in the replies. There are some issues to take into account when using them.
There's a solution without using them in the MDN page about Base64. Below you can find the code to convert a base64 string into a Uint8Array copied from the docs.
Note that the function below returns a Uint8Array. To get the ArrayBuffer version you just need to do uintArray.buffer.
function b64ToUint6(nChr) {
return nChr > 64 && nChr < 91
? nChr - 65
: nChr > 96 && nChr < 123
? nChr - 71
: nChr > 47 && nChr < 58
? nChr + 4
: nChr === 43
? 62
: nChr === 47
? 63
: 0;
}
function base64DecToArr(sBase64, nBlocksSize) {
const sB64Enc = sBase64.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9+/]/g, "");
const nInLen = sB64Enc.length;
const nOutLen = nBlocksSize
? Math.ceil(((nInLen * 3 + 1) >> 2) / nBlocksSize) * nBlocksSize
: (nInLen * 3 + 1) >> 2;
const taBytes = new Uint8Array(nOutLen);
let nMod3;
let nMod4;
let nUint24 = 0;
let nOutIdx = 0;
for (let nInIdx = 0; nInIdx < nInLen; nInIdx++) {
nMod4 = nInIdx & 3;
nUint24 |= b64ToUint6(sB64Enc.charCodeAt(nInIdx)) << (6 * (3 - nMod4));
if (nMod4 === 3 || nInLen - nInIdx === 1) {
nMod3 = 0;
while (nMod3 < 3 && nOutIdx < nOutLen) {
taBytes[nOutIdx] = (nUint24 >>> ((16 >>> nMod3) & 24)) & 255;
nMod3++;
nOutIdx++;
}
nUint24 = 0;
}
}
return taBytes;
}
If you're interested in the reverse operation, ArrayBuffer to base64, you can find how to do it in the same link.