buffer¶

Description¶

Returns a new buffer object which references the object argument.

Syntax¶

buffer (object[, offset[, size]])

object: Required. The object argument must be an object that supports the buffer call interface (such as string, unicode, bytearray, mmap.mmap or array.array).
offset: Optional. Buffer slice offset; if omitted the buffer object will be a slice from the beginning of object.
size: Optional. Length of the slice; if omitted the slice will extend to the end of object.

Return Value¶

#TODO

Time Complexity¶

#TODO

Remarks¶

The buffer() function allows direct (read-only) access to an object’s byte-oriented data without needing to copy it first. That can yield large performance gains when operating on large objects since it does not create a copy of an object when slicing. See memoryview() for read and write access.

Example¶

>>> b = buffer('hello')
>>> b
<read-only buffer for 0x00EE38A0, size -1, offset 0 at 0x00EE3020>
>>> print b
hello
>>> b = buffer('hello', 1)
>>> print b
ello
>>> b = buffer('hello', 1, 3)
>>> print b
ell