What is this data format and how do I convert it into readable text?

Question

An API is returning me this data in body of the response object.

{ statusCode: 500,body:'\u001f�\b\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0003��]K�0\u0014��J���u*H�2\u00106\u0018�\f� x�%gk MB�~��M�n��\b^�=�}��[��*�\u001a�AY��r<�\u0010\u0018a�2�eV���1[1\u001a,w`�bm\u001a��\u0001J�\t�\u0018^fe�� $�\u0012*\u001ep��)l���/\u0004F�d#�\u0005y�ڶ���Y���s���?\u0017���o�L�\u0010�\u0011�M�>Y�5}mx�#����6\u0004vI���\u000b�:�_w\u0002\\L��d�\rH�>\u001d�Yυ\u0006�I�[8$�Q\u00020\\8�5\r�J��\u0015�t�k�\u0002��V�\r��q?���颀\u000eD\u001d��i��G\u001b�t��@�\u0006\u0014-\u001aï�,\u0012�D�\u0016F��P\\#Q�~�o���#?h?�-�ѩ�DiF��\u0003aԄ�(m��\u001fd0(��\u0006�\b�\'O�&�N\u0005��ڨ�����\u0001\u000f͹\fX؊���\u0018%�\u0011ɍk䷧���d�\u0000\u0000\u0000��\u0003\u00001����\u0002\u0000\u0000'}

Any way I can convert this into a human-readable format in node js?

Answer 1

Couldn't this just be undesired behaviour due to the internal server error? The \\uXXX format is unicode, obviously unsure about the other unrecognised symbols but I doubt the response body holds any value to you.

Answer 2

As already pointed out, that's binary data serialised as JSON. But JSON is a text-only data format, it can't handle binary streams, so data is most likely already corrupted when it reaches your side.

However, the statusCode: 500 part suggests that the server is just crashing (you're possibly getting a 500 status code in the HTTP response, which is something you should be checking anyway). Thus there's possibly nothing interesting here.