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Blob

The Blob object represents a blob, which is a file-like object of immutable, raw data; they can be read as text or binary data, or converted into a ReadableStream so its methods can be used for processing the data.

Blobs can represent data that isn't necessarily in a JavaScript-native format. The File interface is based on Blob, inheriting blob functionality and expanding it to support files on the user's system.

Using blobs

To construct a Blob from other non-blob objects and data, use the Blob() constructor. To create a blob that contains a subset of another blob's data, use the slice() method. To obtain a Blob object for a file on the user's file system, see the File documentation.

The APIs accepting Blob objects are also listed in the File documentation.

Constructor

Blob()

Returns a newly created Blob object which contains a concatenation of all of the data in the array passed into the constructor.

Instance properties

Blob.prototype.size Read only

The size, in bytes, of the data contained in the Blob object.

Blob.prototype.type Read only

A string indicating the MIME type of the data contained in the Blob. If the type is unknown, this string is empty.

Instance methods

Blob.prototype.arrayBuffer()

Returns a promise that resolves with an ArrayBuffer containing the entire contents of the Blob as binary data.

Blob.prototype.slice()

Returns a new Blob object containing the data in the specified range of bytes of the blob on which it's called.

Blob.prototype.stream()

Returns a ReadableStream that can be used to read the contents of the Blob.

Blob.prototype.text()

Returns a promise that resolves with a string containing the entire contents of the Blob interpreted as UTF-8 text.

Examples

Creating a blob

The Blob() constructor can create blobs from other objects. For example, to construct a blob from a JSON string:

js

const obj = { hello: "world" };
const blob = new Blob([JSON.stringify(obj, null, 2)], {
  type: "application/json",
});

Creating a URL representing the contents of a typed array

The following code creates a JavaScript typed array and creates a new Blob containing the typed array's data. It then calls URL.createObjectURL() to convert the blob into a URL.

HTML

html

<p>
  This example creates a typed array containing the ASCII codes for the space
  character through the letter Z, then converts it to an object URL. A link to
  open that object URL is created. Click the link to see the decoded object URL.
</p>

JavaScript

The main piece of this code for example purposes is the typedArrayToURL() function, which creates a Blob from the given typed array and returns an object URL for it. Having converted the data into an object URL, it can be used in a number of ways, including as the value of the <img> element's src attribute (assuming the data contains an image, of course).

js

function showViewLiveResultButton() {
  if (window.self !== window.top) {
    // Ensure that if our document is in a frame, we get the user
    // to first open it in its own tab or window. Otherwise, this
    // example won't work.
    const p = document.querySelector("p");
    p.textContent = "";
    const button = document.createElement("button");
    button.textContent = "View live result of the example code above";
    p.append(button);
    button.addEventListener("click", () => window.open(location.href));
    return true;
  }
  return false;
}

if (!showViewLiveResultButton()) {
  function typedArrayToURL(typedArray, mimeType) {
    return URL.createObjectURL(
      new Blob([typedArray.buffer], { type: mimeType }),
    );
  }
  const bytes = new Uint8Array(59);

  for (let i = 0; i < 59; i++) {
    bytes[i] = 32 + i;
  }

  const url = typedArrayToURL(bytes, "text/plain");

  const link = document.createElement("a");
  link.href = url;
  link.innerText = "Open the array URL";

  document.body.appendChild(link);
}

Result

Extracting data from a blob

One way to read content from a Blob is to use a FileReader. The following code reads the content of a Blob as a typed array:

js

const reader = new FileReader();
reader.addEventListener("loadend", () => {
  // reader.result contains the contents of blob as a typed array
});
reader.readAsArrayBuffer(blob);

Another way to read content from a Blob is to use a Response. The following code reads the content of a Blob as text:

js

const text = await new Response(blob).text();

Or by using Blob.prototype.text():

js

const text = await blob.text();

By using other methods of FileReader, it is possible to read the contents of a Blob as a string or a data URL.

Specifications

Specification
File API
# blob-section

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
Blob 20 12
13Before Firefox 16, the second parameter, when set to null or undefined, leads to an error instead of being handled as an empty dictionary.
10IE10 throws InvalidStateError with a TypedArray argument. Consider using MSBuilder as an alternative.
12 6 4.4 25
14Before Firefox 16, the second parameter, when set to null or undefined, leads to an error instead of being handled as an empty dictionary.
12 6 1.5
Blob 5 12 4 10 11 6 4.4 18 4 11 6 1.0
arrayBuffer 76 79 69 No 63 14 76 76 79 54 14 12.0
size 5 12 4 10 11 6 4.4 18 4 11 6 1.0
slice 215–25 12
13Before Firefox 12, there was a bug that affected the behavior of Blob.slice(); it did not work for start and end positions outside the range of signed 64-bit values; it has now been fixed to support unsigned 64-bit values.
5–13
10 12 76–7 4.4 2518–25
14Before Firefox 12, there was a bug that affected the behavior of Blob.slice(); it did not work for start and end positions outside the range of signed 64-bit values; it has now been fixed to support unsigned 64-bit values.
5–14
12 76–7 1.51.0–1.5
stream 76 79 69 No 63 14.1 76 76 79 54 14.5 12.0
text 76 79 69 No 63 14 76 76 79 54 14 12.0
type 5 12 4 10 11 6 4.4 18 4 11 6 1.0

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob