Convert NodeJS buffer to integer

Question

I want to generate random numbers using randomBytes in NodeJS. After looking around I found a method that converts buffers to integers;

const integer = parseInt(buffer.toString("hex"), 16)

Is there something wrong with using this method. I've seen other solutions that use buffer.readUIntBE and other similar methods. I'm wondering what advantage they have over the solution above

Answer 1

Maybe not necessarily wrong, but converting a buffer to its hexadecimal string representation to then parse it into a number seems, to say the least, not very straightforward and unnecessarily resource-consuming.

The buffer read methods mostly perform numeric operations (e.g. here) and should be much less resource-consuming while also, in my opinion, being easier to interpret for whoever reads your code.

function randomUInt32() {
   return crypto.randomBytes(4).readUInt32BE();
}

vs.

function randomUInt32() {
   return parseInt(crypto.randomBytes(4).toString("hex"), 16);
}