Converting arraybuffer to string : Maximum call stack size exceeded

Question

This is my code.

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('GET',window.location.href, true);
xhr.responseType = "arraybuffer";
xhr.onload = function(event) {
 debugger;
 console.log(" coverting array buffer to string "); 
 alert(String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint8Array(this.response)));
};
xhr.send();

That request is being made to a PDF URL which is around 3 MB in size. I have read a few threads with same error, Maximum call stack size exceeded, telling me that there must be some recursive call but I do not see any recursive call here. Can anyone help?

Is this request to the very same page? Using GET on `window.location.href`? — skobaljic, Jul 18 '16 at 09:16
@skobaljic Yes.For example, the current page is http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~lok/3101/lectures/02-corejava.pdf — Suresh Atta, Jul 18 '16 at 09:19
If you call same page with same script included, why do you wonder there is too much recursion? Try calling other page with no script. Or if you call via xhr, than do not output the script again, or add parameter to distinct the call. — skobaljic, Jul 18 '16 at 10:27
@skobaljic this script wont execute in load function. I am just reading the pdf page data. — Suresh Atta, Jul 18 '16 at 10:29
@skobaljic Well, this code is inside extension. When people click an option this code gets execute. If the page is we pure html page, I am using jquery to get body text , where as for pdf url's I can use jquery body text. So reading the contents as arraybuffer and trying to parse it to a string. That is where I am getting this error. — Suresh Atta, Jul 18 '16 at 10:37
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/117594/discussion-between-ss--and-skobaljic). — Suresh Atta, Jul 18 '16 at 10:57

score 30 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '20 at 22:54

30

I had the same problem and I finally used this code:

function _arrayBufferToBase64( buffer ) {
    var binary = '';
    var bytes = new Uint8Array( buffer );
    var len = bytes.byteLength;
    for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        binary += String.fromCharCode( bytes[ i ] );
    }
    return window.btoa( binary );
}

answered Mar 20 '20 at 22:54

Anthony O.

22,041
18
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163

could use `reduce` instead, but this seems to be what is necessary – Garr Godfrey Nov 05 '20 at 18:24
2

this should be the accepted answer. works like a charm – nex Nov 11 '20 at 12:42

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

14

The error is caused by a limitation in the number of function arguments. See "RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded" Why?

Instead of String.fromCharCode.apply(), use e. g. a TextEncoder. See Uint8Array to string in Javascript

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

1
1

answered Jul 18 '16 at 13:07

le_m

19,302
9
64
74

Hi. How do you use the `TextEncoder` in my case? I have this `var base64 = btoa(String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint8Array(blob)));` – Dev Mar 06 '18 at 03:45
2

I opened a separate [question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49123222/converting-array-buffer-to-string-maximum-call-stack-size-exceeded) – Dev Mar 06 '18 at 05:01
1

For a binary string `TextEncoder` is useless, it does not support `Latin1` (it uses `Windows−1252`), you will get the broken result. `(new TextDecoder("ISO-8859-1").decode(new Uint8Array([148]))).charCodeAt(0);` // 8221, should be 148 – KeyKi Mar 17 '20 at 17:00

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 19 '20 at 13:19

this.response.arrayBuffer()
              .then((buf) => {
                const uint8Array = new Uint8Array(buf);
                const data = uint8Array.reduce((acc, i) => acc += String.fromCharCode.apply(null, [i]), '');
                return data;
              })

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 27 '21 at 19:58

1

Thank you so much Anthony O, you saved my 10 days work.
small modification in my scenario is:

Angular 7 :

/** Convert Uint8Array to string */

    private static arrayBufferToBase64( buffer: Uint8Array ) {
        var binary = '';
        var bytes = new Uint8Array( buffer );
        var len = bytes.byteLength;
        for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
            binary += String.fromCharCode( bytes[ i ] );
        }
        return  binary;
    }

answered Aug 27 '21 at 19:58

Murali Krishna

97
1
4

1

Please don't add "thank you" as an answer. Instead, vote up the answers that you find helpful. – Dario Rodriguez Aug 28 '21 at 01:21

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 12 '23 at 22:55

A little bit more optimized variant would be to utilize the available stack size instead of converting each character separately.

var text = '';
for(var i = 0; i < Math.ceil(bytes.length / 32768.0); i++) {
  text += String.fromCharCode.apply(null, bytes.slice(i * 32768, Math.min((i+1) * 32768, bytes.length)))
}

Converting arraybuffer to string : Maximum call stack size exceeded

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