CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsbuffer
yuc
yuc

Reputation: 508

Why do we need Buffer.isBuffer method?

Why do we need Buffer.isBuffer method when we know it's doing the same thing as instanceof Buffer ?

https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/master/lib/buffer.js#L306

Upvotes: 0

Views: 419

Answers (1)

Jonathan Lonowski
Jonathan Lonowski

Reputation: 123473

It's not technically necessary. It exists for convenience and is probably, to at least a degree, idiomatic.

No extended explanation was given when it was defined, but it appears to have been a refactoring (DRY – answer "what is a buffer" once and reuse) and/or a stylistic preference:

-  if (!(buffer instanceof Buffer)) {
+  if (!Buffer.isBuffer(buffer)) {

There was probably some inspiration taken from Array.isArray().

And, it does also offer some additional backwards compatibility (or possibly some future-proofing), as not all of Node's versions have had a single type for Buffers:

Buffer.isBuffer = function isBuffer(b) {
  return b instanceof Buffer || b instanceof SlowBuffer;
};

Upvotes: 2

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