WebAssembly

The WebAssembly JavaScript object acts as the namespace for all WebAssembly-related functionality.

Unlike most other global objects, WebAssembly is not a constructor (it is not a function object). You can compare it to Math, which is also a namespace object for mathematical constants and functions, or to Intl which is the namespace object for internationalization constructors and other language sensitive functions.

Description

The primary uses for the WebAssembly object are:

• Loading WebAssembly code, using the WebAssembly.instantiate() function.
• Creating new memory and table instances via the WebAssembly.Memory()/WebAssembly.Table() constructors.
• Providing facilities to handle errors that occur in WebAssembly via the WebAssembly.CompileError()/WebAssembly.LinkError()/WebAssembly.RuntimeError() constructors.

Methods

WebAssembly.instantiate()

The primary API for compiling and instantiating WebAssembly code, returning both a Module and its first Instance.

WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming()

Compiles and instantiates a WebAssembly module directly from a streamed underlying source, returning both a Module and its first Instance.

WebAssembly.compile()

Compiles a WebAssembly.Module from WebAssembly binary code, leaving instantiation as a separate step.

WebAssembly.compileStreaming()

compiles a WebAssembly.Module directly from a streamed underlying source, leaving instantiation as a separate step.

WebAssembly.validate()

Validates a given typed array of WebAssembly binary code, returning whether the bytes are valid WebAssembly code (true) or not (false).

Constructors

WebAssembly.Global()

Creates a new WebAssembly Global object.

WebAssembly.Module()

Creates a new WebAssembly Module object.

WebAssembly.Instance()

Creates a new WebAssembly Instance object.

WebAssembly.Memory()

Creates a new WebAssembly Memory object.

WebAssembly.Table()

Creates a new WebAssembly Table object.

WebAssembly.CompileError()

Creates a new WebAssembly CompileError object.

WebAssembly.LinkError()

Creates a new WebAssembly LinkError object.

WebAssembly.RuntimeError()

Creates a new WebAssembly RuntimeError object.

Examples

The following example (see our instantiate-streaming.html demo on GitHub, and view it live also) directly streams a .wasm module from an underlying source then compiles and instantiates it, the promise fulfilling with a ResultObject. Because the instantiateStreaming()  function accepts a promise for a Response object, you can directly pass it a WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.fetch() call, and it will pass the response into the function when it fulfills.

var importObject = { imports: { imported_func: arg => console.log(arg) } };

WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming(fetch('simple.wasm'), importObject)
.then(obj => obj.instance.exports.exported_func());

The ResultObject's instance member is then accessed, and the contained exported function invoked.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• WebAssembly overview page
• WebAssembly concepts
• Using the WebAssembly JavaScript API