The Byte Stream Classes

The Byte Stream Classes
Byte streams are defined by using two class hierarchies. At the top are two abstract classes:
Input Stream and Output Stream. Each of these abstract classes has several concrete
subclasses that handle the differences between various devices, such as disk files, network
connections, and even memory buffers. To use the stream classes, we must import java.io. The
abstract classes Input Stream and Output Stream define several key methods that the other
stream classes implement. Two of the most important are read ( ) and write ( ), which,
respectively, read and write bytes of data. Both methods are declared as abstract inside Input
Stream and Output Stream. They are overridden by derived stream classes.
The Character Stream Classes

Character streams are defined by using two class hierarchies. At the top are two abstract classes,
Reader and Writer. These abstract classes handle Unicode character streams. Java has several
concrete subclasses of each of these.
The abstract classes Reader and Writer define several key methods that the other stream classes
implement. Two of the most important methods are read( ) and write( ), which read and write
characters of data, respectively. These methods are overridden by derived stream classes.
The Predefined Streams
All Java programs automatically import the java.lang package. This package defines a class
called System, which encapsulates several aspects of the run-time environment.
For example, using some of its methods, we can obtain the current time and the settings of
various properties associated with the system.
System also contains three predefined stream variables: in, out, and err. These fields are
declared as public, static, and final within System. This means that they can be used by any
other part of our program and without reference to a specific System object.
System.out refers to the standard output stream. By default, this is the console. System.in
refers to standard input, which is the keyboard by default. System.err refers to the standard error
stream, which also is the console by default. However, these streams may be redirected to any
compatible I/O device.
System.in is an object of type InputStream; System.out and System.err are objects of type
PrintStream. These are byte streams, even though they typically are used to read and write
characters from and to the console. As you will see, you can wrap these within character-based
streams, if desired. The use of System.in is a little more complicated.
Reading Console Input
In Java 1.0, the only way to perform console input was to use a byte stream, and older code
that uses this approach persists. Today, using a byte stream to read console input is still
technically possible, but doing so is not recommended. The preferred method of reading console
input is to use a character-oriented stream, which makes your program easier to internationalize
and maintain.
In Java, console input is accomplished by reading from System.in. To obtain a characterbased

stream that is attached to the console, wrap System.in in a BufferedReader object.
BufferedReader supports a buffered input stream. Its most commonly used constructor
is shown here:
BufferedReader(Reader inputReader)
Here, inputReader is the stream that is linked to the instance of BufferedReader that is being
created. Reader is an abstract class. One of its concrete subclasses is InputStreamReader,
which converts bytes to characters. To obtain an InputStreamReader object that is linked to
System.in, use the following constructor:
InputStreamReader(InputStream inputStream)
Because System.in refers to an object of type InputStream, it can be used for inputStream.
Putting it all together, the following line of code creates a BufferedReader that is connected
to the keyboard:
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new

InputStreamReader(System.in));
After this statement executes, br is a character-based stream that is linked to the console
through System.in.
Reading Characters
To read a character from a BufferedReader, use read( ). The version of read( ) that we will
be using is
int read( ) throws IOException
Each time that read( ) is called, it reads a character from the input stream and returns it as
an integer value. It returns –1 when the end of the stream is encountered. As we can see,
it can throw an IOException.
The following program demonstrates read( ) by reading characters from the console
until the user types a "q.” Notice that any I/O exceptions that might be generated are
simply thrown out of main( ). Such an approach is common when reading from the console,
but we can handle these types of errors ourselves, if we chose.
// Use a BufferedReader to read characters from the console.
import java.io.*;
class BRRead {
public static void main(String args[])
throws IOException
{
char c;
BufferedReader br = new
BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
System.out.println("Enter characters, 'q' to quit.");
//290 P a r t I : T h e J a v a L a n g u a g e
// read characters
do {
c = (char) br.read();
System.out.println(c);
} while(c != 'q');
}
}
Here is a sample run:

Enter characters, 'q' to quit.
123abcq
1
2
3
a
b
c
q
This output may look a little different from what you expected, because System.in is line
buffered, by default. This means that no input is actually passed to the program until we
press ENTER. As we can guess, this does not make read( ) particularly valuable for interactive
console input.
PACKAGES :
Collection of classes
C1 CLASS: SUM1()
C2 CLASS : SUM1()
C3 CLASS : SUM2()
PACKAGES 1 : CLASS FRUIT

PACKAGES 2 CLASS FRUIT
NO NAMING CONFLICION
Implementation…..in java lab

The Byte Stream Classes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Byte Stream Classes

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Byte Stream Classes

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Byte Stream Classes

The Character Stream Classes

In Java, console input is accomplished by reading from System.in. To obtain a characterbased

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new

int read( ) throws IOException

Here is a sample run:

PACKAGES 1 : CLASS FRUIT

Implementation…..in java lab

You might also like