Streams

What is a buffer? In the world of programming, a buffer refers to an area of memory that is used to hold data temporarily. While JavaScript developers may not be familiar with this concept, it is commonly used by developers working with system programming languages like C, C++, or Go. Buffers are essentially fixed-size chunks of memory that store binary data. In Node.js, buffers are implemented using the Buffer class, which allows JavaScript developers to interact with binary data....

Streams are a fundamental concept in Node.js that allow for efficient handling of data. They provide a way to handle reading and writing files, network communications, and any type of end-to-end information exchange. What are streams? Streams are not unique to Node.js and have been around for decades, with origins in the Unix operating system. In traditional data handling methods, when you read a file, the entire file is loaded into memory before it can be processed....

Using streams, we can receive a resource from the network or other sources and process it as soon as the first bit arrives. This allows us to immediately work with the resource instead of waiting for it to fully download. What is a stream A common example that demonstrates the benefit of streams is loading a YouTube video. You don’t have to wait for the entire video to load before you can start watching it....