Function: serializeDicom()

serializeDicom(ds): Buffer

Serialize a Dataset to a spec-clean DICOM Part 10 Buffer.

The dataset's transfer syntax is preserved (no transcoding): pixel-data fragments and nested sequences are written back byte-for-byte, while scalar values are re-emitted with correct even-length padding and File Meta group length. Pure function - the input Dataset is never mutated.

Input contract. The writer is designed for a Dataset produced by parseDicom: it relies on the parser's Element.rawBytes representation (value-only for scalars and Implicit-LE defined-length SQ; full on-wire span for Explicit SQ, undefined-length spans, encapsulated Pixel Data, and the UN/CP-246 fallbacks). A hand-built Dataset must follow the same convention for its bytes to be encoded correctly.

Round-trip scope. parseDicom(out) re-reads to a dataset that is equal over the modeled surface (every dataset element + the typed "../dataset/file-meta".FileMeta fields plus any non-modeled File Meta elements preserved on extraElements), not a byte-exact copy of the original file: the 128-byte preamble is normalized to zeros, the File Meta group is rebuilt in ascending tag order (modeled fields + extraElements - see encodeFileMeta), odd-length values are padded even, and retired (gggg,0000) group lengths are dropped.

Parameters

ds

Dataset

Returns

Buffer

Throws

DicomSerializeError with code MISSING_TRANSFER_SYNTAX when the dataset has no File Meta Transfer Syntax UID, or UNSUPPORTED_TRANSFER_SYNTAX when that UID is outside the v1 set.

Example

import { parseDicom, serializeDicom } from "@cosyte/dicom";
const ds = parseDicom(buf);
const out = serializeDicom(ds); // spec-clean Part 10, same transfer syntax
// parseDicom(out) re-reads to a structurally-equal dataset.