converting between Uint8Arrays and binary-encoded strings and word-arrays (for crypto purposes, with CryptoJS and NaCL)

gistfile1.js

/*
wordArray: { words: [..], sigBytes: words.length * 4 }
*/

// assumes wordArray is Big-Endian (because it comes from CryptoJS which is all BE)
// From: https://gist.github.com/creationix/07856504cf4d5cede5f9#file-encode-js
function convertWordArrayToUint8Array(wordArray) {
	var len = wordArray.words.length,
		u8_array = new Uint8Array(len << 2),
		offset = 0, word, i
	;
	for (i=0; i<len; i++) {
		word = wordArray.words[i];
		u8_array[offset++] = word >> 24;
		u8_array[offset++] = (word >> 16) & 0xff;
		u8_array[offset++] = (word >> 8) & 0xff;
		u8_array[offset++] = word & 0xff;
	}
	return u8_array;
}

// create a wordArray that is Big-Endian (because it's used with CryptoJS which is all BE)
// From: https://gist.github.com/creationix/07856504cf4d5cede5f9#file-encode-js
function convertUint8ArrayToWordArray(u8Array) {
	var words = [], i = 0, len = u8Array.length;

	while (i < len) {
		words.push(
			(u8Array[i++] << 24) |
			(u8Array[i++] << 16) |
			(u8Array[i++] << 8)  |
			(u8Array[i++])
		);
	}

	return {
		sigBytes: words.length * 4,
		words: words
	};
}

function convertUint8ArrayToBinaryString(u8Array) {
	var i, len = u8Array.length, b_str = "";
	for (i=0; i<len; i++) {
		b_str += String.fromCharCode(u8Array[i]);
	}
	return b_str;
}

function convertBinaryStringToUint8Array(bStr) {
	var i, len = bStr.length, u8_array = new Uint8Array(len);
	for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
		u8_array[i] = bStr.charCodeAt(i);
	}
	return u8_array;
}

CryptoJS's WordArray has sigBytes for cases when length of uint8array is not divisible by 4. It should be the length of the original array and signals how much of the last word should be used.

This was also the source of @hygroovy's problem. Funfact: we're discussing this under a three-year-old topic :P

Thanks , Mr. Simpson. these help me a lot when play with msgpack and axios.

@pawelabrams Right, this caused troubles for me and should be changed to sigBytes: len

Big thanks for inspiration!

const formatU8Afrom = Uint8Array.from.bind(Uint8Array);

const formatFromCC = String.fromCharCode.bind(String);

export function stringToUint8Array(str: string) {
  return formatU8Afrom(str, (c) => c.charCodeAt(0));
}

export function uint8ArrayToString(u8a: Uint8Array) {
  // cf. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12710001/how-to-convert-uint8-array-to-base64-encoded-string/12713326#12713326
  const maxargs = 0x1000;
  const strs = [];
  for (let i = 0, l = u8a.length; i < l; i += maxargs) {
    strs.push(formatFromCC(...u8a.subarray(i, i + maxargs)));
  }
  return strs.join('');
}