Base64 decode explained

Originally posted on May 2nd, 2016 (more info)

Part 1 – base64 encode explained Part 2 – base64 decode explained

I've used base64 a lot but never have I delved into it enough to understand exactly what goes on. So I took the time to explain via inline comments. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

String.prototype.fromBase64 = function () {
  const base64chars = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef' +
                      'ghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/';
  let result = '',
      encoded = '';

  // step 1. convert base64chars into reverse lookup object
  const base64inv = {};
  for (let i = 0; i < base64chars.length; i++)
    base64inv[base64chars[i]] = i;

  // step 2. remove any characters that are not base64 or padding
  const base64regex = new RegExp(`[^${base64chars}=]`, 'g');
  encoded = this.replace(base64regex, '');

  // step 3. replace padding at the end with A (remember, A equals zero)
  const onePadding = encoded.charAt(encoded.length - 1) === '=';
  const twoPadding = encoded.charAt(encoded.length - 2) === '=';  
  const padding = onePadding ? twoPadding ? 'AA' : 'A' : '';
  encoded = encoded.substring(0, encoded.length - padding.length) + padding;

  // step 4. iterate over the encoded string, four characters at a time
  for (let i = 0; i < encoded.length; i += 4) {

    // step 5. convert the four base64 characters into 6-bit numbers using
    //         the base64 character -> 6-bit number map above
    const dn = base64inv[encoded.charAt(i)];
    const en = base64inv[encoded.charAt(i + 1)];
    const fn = base64inv[encoded.charAt(i + 2)];
    const gn = base64inv[encoded.charAt(i + 3)];

    // step 6. convert these four 6-bit numbers into  one 24-bit number
    //
    // if you remember from before, we split a 24-bit number into four 6-bit numbers:
    //
    // e.g.   00001111 00000101 00001010
    // to     |----||- ---||--- -||----|
    //         d     e      f      g
    //
    // d =    00000000 00000000 00000011
    // e =    00000000 00000000 00110000
    // f =    00000000 00000000 00010100
    // g =    00000000 00000000 00001010
    //
    //
    // we need to left shift them (<<) so that they all line up
    // 
    // 00000000 00000000 00XXXXXX (we have four of these)
    // DDDDDDEE EEEEFFFF FFGGGGGG (we want one of these)        
    const d = dn << 18;      // DDDDDD00 00000000 00000000
    const e = en << 12;      // 000000EE EEEE0000 00000000
    const f = fn << 6;       // 00000000 0000FFFF FF000000
    const g = gn;            // 00000000 00000000 00GGGGGG
    const n = d + e + f + g; // DDDDDDEE EEEEFFFF FFGGGGGG (yay!)

    // step 7. split this 24-bit number into three 8-bit (ASCII) characters
    //
    // if you remember, we had three of these (8-bit): 00000000
    // and we actually wanted one of these (24-bit): 00000000 00000000 00000000
    //
    // to get this, we shift the first number 16 bits left, and the second, 8 bits left:
    //
    // 00000000 <------- -------- first char << 16
    //          00000000 <------- second char << 8
    //                   00000000 third char (no shift)
    //
    // so now we want to reverse this and reclaim our three 8-bit (ASCII) characters,
    // we can do this by shifting the numbers back over to the right, and applying a
    // 255 value logical AND (&) bit mask to ignore anything in the 16 bits on the left
    //
    // e.g.   00001111 00000101 00001010
    // to     |------| |------| |------|
    //         a        b        c
    //
    // >>> 16 00000000 00000000 00001111
    // & 255  00000000 00000000 11111111
    // a =    00000000 00000000 00001111
    //                            
    // >>> 8  00000000 00001111 00000101
    // & 255  00000000 00000000 11111111
    // b =    00000000 00000000 00000101
    //
    // noop   00001111 00000101 00001010
    // & 255  00000000 00000000 11111111
    // c =    00000000 00000000 00001010
    const a = (n >>> 16) & 255;
    const b = (n >>> 8) & 255;
    const c = n & 255;

    // step 8. turn these three 8-bit numbers into ASCII characters, and append to result
    result += String.fromCharCode(a, b, c);
  }

  // step 8. finally, remove any padding that was previously added to make this a multiple of 3
  return result.substring(0, result.length - padding.length);
};