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 A buffer is a region of a physical memory storage used to temporarily store data while it is being moved from one place to another.

A buffer is a data area shared by hardware devices or program processes that operate at different speeds or with different sets of priorities. The buffer allows each device or process to operate without being held up by the other. 

This term is used both in programming and in hardware. In programming, buffering sometimes implies the need to screen data from its final intended place so that it can be edited or otherwise processed before being moved to a regular file or database.