Creates and returns a new key object containing a public key. If key is a string or Buffer, format is assumed to be 'pem'; if key is a KeyObject with type 'private', the public key is derived from the given private key; otherwise, key must be an object with the properties described above.

If the format is 'pem', the 'key' may also be an X.509 certificate.

Because public keys can be derived from private keys, a private key may be passed instead of a public key. In that case, this function behaves as if createPrivateKey had been called, except that the type of the returned KeyObject will be 'public' and that the private key cannot be extracted from the returned KeyObject. Similarly, if a KeyObject with type 'private' is given, a new KeyObject with type 'public' will be returned and it will be impossible to extract the private key from the returned object.