`Buffer.alloc()`

Allocates a new zero-filled Buffer of the given size.

Since Node 4.5 Spec ↗

Syntax

Buffer.alloc(size[, fill[, encoding]])

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`size`	`number`	Yes	The number of bytes to allocate.
`fill`	`string \| Buffer \| number`	No	A value to pre-fill the buffer with (default 0).
`encoding`	`string`	No	Encoding when `fill` is a string.

Returns

Buffer — A new, safely zero-initialized Buffer.

Examples

const buf = Buffer.alloc(4);
console.log(buf);

Output

<Buffer 00 00 00 00>

const buf = Buffer.alloc(8);
buf.writeUInt32BE(0xdeadbeef, 0);
console.log(buf.toString('hex'));

Output

deadbeef0000000000

Notes

`Buffer.alloc` zero-fills and is safe. `Buffer.allocUnsafe` is faster but returns uninitialized memory that may contain old data, so only use it when you immediately overwrite every byte.