buffer protocol
The buffer protocol is a mechanism in Python that allows objects to share their internal memory buffers with other objects for direct access.
It underpins features like memoryview() and allows efficient data sharing between objects that store large amounts of data, such as images, audio, or numerical arrays. When an object implements the buffer protocol, other code can access its underlying memory buffer directly.
This protocol is especially important for performance-critical situations because it reduces overhead and preserves memory usage by avoiding unnecessary copies. Built-in types such as bytes, bytearray, and array.array expose a buffer interface. Libraries like NumPy also use it to exchange raw data efficiently across different parts of an application.
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By Dan Bader • Updated July 10, 2026
