level

Fast & simple storage. A Node.js-style LevelDB wrapper for Node.js, Electron and browsers.

Table of Contents

Introduction

This is a convenience package that:

• exports a function that returns a levelup instance when invoked
• bundles the current release of leveldown and level-js
• leverages encodings using encoding-down.

Use this package to avoid having to explicitly install leveldown and/or level-js when you just want to use levelup. It uses leveldown in Node.js or Electron and level-js in browsers (when bundled by browserify, webpack or similar. Note: rollup fails to properly resolve the browser field).

Usage

If you are upgrading: please see UPGRADING.md.

var level = require('level')
 
// 1) Create our database, supply location and options.
//    This will create or open the underlying store.
var db = level('my-db')
 
// 2) Put a key & value
db.put('name', 'Level', function (err) {
  if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err) // some kind of I/O error
 
  // 3) Fetch by key
  db.get('name', function (err, value) {
    if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err) // likely the key was not found
 
    // Ta da!
    console.log('name=' + value)
  })
})

Supported Platforms

At the time of writing, level works in Node.js 8+ and Electron 3+ on Linux, Mac OS, Windows and FreeBSD, including any future Node.js and Electron release thanks to N-API, including ARM platforms like Raspberry Pi and Android, as well as in Chrome, Firefox, IE 11, Edge, Safari, iPhone and Chrome for Android. For details, see Supported Platforms of leveldown and Browser Support of level-js.

Though leveldown and level-js have subtle differences in type handling, level negates this by transparently wrapping both with encoding-down. If you want to support all possible runtime environments, stick to string keys with encodings like the default utf8. Binary values are supported across the board; in browsers that support IndexedDB Second Edition (like Chrome and Firefox) you can also use binary keys.

If you want to use Promises, you will need a polyfill like pinkie in older browsers like IE.

API

For options specific to leveldown and level-js ("underlying store" from here on out), please see their respective READMEs.

• level()
• db.open()
• db.close()
• db.put()
• db.get()
• db.del()
• db.batch() (array form)
• db.batch() (chained form)
• db.isOpen()
• db.isClosed()
• db.createReadStream()
• db.createKeyStream()
• db.createValueStream()

db = level(location[, options[, callback]])

The main entry point for creating a new levelup instance.

• location is a string pointing to the LevelDB location to be opened or in browsers, the name of the IDBDatabase to be opened.
• options is passed on to the underlying store.
• options.keyEncoding and options.valueEncoding are passed to encoding-down, default encoding is 'utf8'

Calling level('my-db') will also open the underlying store. This is an asynchronous operation which will trigger your callback if you provide one. The callback should take the form function (err, db) {} where db is the levelup instance. If you don't provide a callback, any read & write operations are simply queued internally until the store is fully opened.

This leads to two alternative ways of managing a levelup instance:

level(location, options, function (err, db) {
  if (err) throw err
 
  db.get('foo', function (err, value) {
    if (err) return console.log('foo does not exist')
    console.log('got foo =', value)
  })
})

Versus the equivalent:

// Will throw if an error occurs
var db = level(location, options)
 
db.get('foo', function (err, value) {
  if (err) return console.log('foo does not exist')
  console.log('got foo =', value)
})

The constructor function has a .errors property which provides access to the different error types from level-errors. See example below on how to use it:

level('my-db', { createIfMissing: false }, function (err, db) {
  if (err instanceof level.errors.OpenError) {
    console.log('failed to open database')
  }
})

Note that createIfMissing is an option specific to leveldown.

db.open([callback])

Opens the underlying store. In general you should never need to call this method directly as it's automatically called by levelup().

However, it is possible to reopen the store after it has been closed with close(), although this is not generally advised.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.close([callback])

close() closes the underlying store. The callback will receive any error encountered during closing as the first argument.

You should always clean up your levelup instance by calling close() when you no longer need it to free up resources. A store cannot be opened by multiple instances of levelup simultaneously.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.put(key, value[, options][, callback])

put() is the primary method for inserting data into the store. Both key and value can be of any type as far as levelup is concerned.

• options is passed on to the underlying store
• options.keyEncoding and options.valueEncoding are passed to encoding-down, allowing you to override the key- and/or value encoding for this put operation.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.get(key[, options][, callback])

get() is the primary method for fetching data from the store. The key can be of any type. If it doesn't exist in the store then the callback or promise will receive an error. A not-found err object will be of type 'NotFoundError' so you can err.type == 'NotFoundError' or you can perform a truthy test on the property err.notFound.

db.get('foo', function (err, value) {
  if (err) {
    if (err.notFound) {
      // handle a 'NotFoundError' here
      return
    }
    // I/O or other error, pass it up the callback chain
    return callback(err)
  }
 
  // .. handle `value` here
})

• options is passed on to the underlying store.
• options.keyEncoding and options.valueEncoding are passed to encoding-down, allowing you to override the key- and/or value encoding for this get operation.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.del(key[, options][, callback])

del() is the primary method for removing data from the store.

db.del('foo', function (err) {
  if (err)
    // handle I/O or other error
});

• options is passed on to the underlying store.
• options.keyEncoding is passed to encoding-down, allowing you to override the key encoding for this del operation.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.batch(array[, options][, callback]) (array form)

batch() can be used for very fast bulk-write operations (both put and delete). The array argument should contain a list of operations to be executed sequentially, although as a whole they are performed as an atomic operation inside the underlying store.

Each operation is contained in an object having the following properties: type, key, value, where the type is either 'put' or 'del'. In the case of 'del' the value property is ignored. Any entries with a key of null or undefined will cause an error to be returned on the callback and any type: 'put' entry with a value of null or undefined will return an error.

var ops = [
  { type: 'del', key: 'father' },
  { type: 'put', key: 'name', value: 'Yuri Irsenovich Kim' },
  { type: 'put', key: 'dob', value: '16 February 1941' },
  { type: 'put', key: 'spouse', value: 'Kim Young-sook' },
  { type: 'put', key: 'occupation', value: 'Clown' }
]
 
db.batch(ops, function (err) {
  if (err) return console.log('Ooops!', err)
  console.log('Great success dear leader!')
})

• options is passed on to the underlying store.
• options.keyEncoding and options.valueEncoding are passed to encoding-down, allowing you to override the key- and/or value encoding of operations in this batch.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.batch() (chained form)

batch(), when called with no arguments will return a Batch object which can be used to build, and eventually commit, an atomic batch operation. Depending on how it's used, it is possible to obtain greater performance when using the chained form of batch() over the array form.

db.batch()
  .del('father')
  .put('name', 'Yuri Irsenovich Kim')
  .put('dob', '16 February 1941')
  .put('spouse', 'Kim Young-sook')
  .put('occupation', 'Clown')
  .write(function () { console.log('Done!') })

batch.put(key, value)

Queue a put operation on the current batch, not committed until a write() is called on the batch.

This method may throw a WriteError if there is a problem with your put (such as the value being null or undefined).

batch.del(key)

Queue a del operation on the current batch, not committed until a write() is called on the batch.

This method may throw a WriteError if there is a problem with your delete.

batch.clear()

Clear all queued operations on the current batch, any previous operations will be discarded.

batch.length

The number of queued operations on the current batch.

batch.write([options][, callback])

Commit the queued operations for this batch. All operations not cleared will be written to the underlying store atomically, that is, they will either all succeed or fail with no partial commits.

• options is passed on to the underlying store.
• options.keyEncoding and options.valueEncoding are not supported here.

If no callback is passed, a promise is returned.

db.isOpen()

A levelup instance can be in one of the following states:

• "new" - newly created, not opened or closed
• "opening" - waiting for the underlying store to be opened
• "open" - successfully opened the store, available for use
• "closing" - waiting for the store to be closed
• "closed" - store has been successfully closed, should not be used

isOpen() will return true only when the state is "open".

db.isClosed()

isClosed() will return true only when the state is "closing" or "closed", it can be useful for determining if read and write operations are permissible.

db.createReadStream([options])

Returns a Readable Stream of key-value pairs. A pair is an object with key and value properties. By default it will stream all entries in the underlying store from start to end. Use the options described below to control the range, direction and results.

db.createReadStream()
  .on('data', function (data) {
    console.log(data.key, '=', data.value)
  })
  .on('error', function (err) {
    console.log('Oh my!', err)
  })
  .on('close', function () {
    console.log('Stream closed')
  })
  .on('end', function () {
    console.log('Stream ended')
  })

You can supply an options object as the first parameter to createReadStream() with the following properties:

• gt (greater than), gte (greater than or equal) define the lower bound of the range to be streamed. Only entries where the key is greater than (or equal to) this option will be included in the range. When reverse=true the order will be reversed, but the entries streamed will be the same.

• lt (less than), lte (less than or equal) define the higher bound of the range to be streamed. Only entries where the key is less than (or equal to) this option will be included in the range. When reverse=true the order will be reversed, but the entries streamed will be the same.

• reverse (boolean, default: false): stream entries in reverse order. Beware that due to the way that stores like LevelDB work, a reverse seek can be slower than a forward seek.

• limit (number, default: -1): limit the number of entries collected by this stream. This number represents a maximum number of entries and may not be reached if you get to the end of the range first. A value of -1 means there is no limit. When reverse=true the entries with the highest keys will be returned instead of the lowest keys.

• keys (boolean, default: true): whether the results should contain keys. If set to true and values set to false then results will simply be keys, rather than objects with a key property. Used internally by the createKeyStream() method.

• values (boolean, default: true): whether the results should contain values. If set to true and keys set to false then results will simply be values, rather than objects with a value property. Used internally by the createValueStream() method.

Legacy options:

• start: instead use gte

• end: instead use lte

Underlying stores may have additional options.

db.createKeyStream([options])

Returns a Readable Stream of keys rather than key-value pairs. Use the same options as described for createReadStream to control the range and direction.

You can also obtain this stream by passing an options object to createReadStream() with keys set to true and values set to false. The result is equivalent; both streams operate in object mode.

db.createKeyStream()
  .on('data', function (data) {
    console.log('key=', data)
  })
 
// same as:
db.createReadStream({ keys: true, values: false })
  .on('data', function (data) {
    console.log('key=', data)
  })

db.createValueStream([options])

Returns a Readable Stream of values rather than key-value pairs. Use the same options as described for createReadStream to control the range and direction.

You can also obtain this stream by passing an options object to createReadStream() with values set to true and keys set to false. The result is equivalent; both streams operate in object mode.

db.createValueStream()
  .on('data', function (data) {
    console.log('value=', data)
  })
 
// same as:
db.createReadStream({ keys: false, values: true })
  .on('data', function (data) {
    console.log('value=', data)
  })

Promise Support

level(up) ships with native Promise support out of the box.

Each function taking a callback also can be used as a promise, if the callback is omitted. This applies for:

• db.get(key[, options])
• db.put(key, value[, options])
• db.del(key[, options])
• db.batch(ops[, options])
• db.batch().write()

The only exception is the level constructor itself, which if no callback is passed will lazily open the underlying store in the background.

Example:

var db = level('my-db')
 
db.put('foo', 'bar')
  .then(function () { return db.get('foo') })
  .then(function (value) { console.log(value) })
  .catch(function (err) { console.error(err) })

Or using async/await:

var main = async () => {
  var db = level('my-db')
 
  await db.put('foo', 'bar')
  console.log(await db.get('foo'))
}

Events

levelup is an EventEmitter and emits the following events.

For example you can do:

db.on('put', function (key, value) {
  console.log('inserted', { key, value })
})

Contributing

Level/level is an OPEN Open Source Project. This means that:

Individuals making significant and valuable contributions are given commit-access to the project to contribute as they see fit. This project is more like an open wiki than a standard guarded open source project.

See the Contribution Guide for more details.

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License

MIT © 2013-present Rod Vagg and Contributors.