By: Naol G.

METTU UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Java programming course
Chapter-4
Java Streams and File I/O
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Introduction
• What is Stream.
• Streams: is connection (logical) that allows a sequence of data moving from program
to file or vice versa.
• Why IO stream
• In java, when we store data inside variables, they kept inside RAM (i.e. lost when
power off).
• EX.
class TemporaryDataStoring{
public static void main(String[] args) { Both, 200.45 and 1234 data is used
double balance = 200.45; only @execution time.
int rolno = 1234; • Then the data will be removed after
} program execution completed.
}

• Advantage of IO stream:
• Permanent data storage (On the disk, not on RAM)
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• In Java, streams are the sequence of data that are read from the
source and written to the destination.
• An input stream allow java program to read data from the source (ex. File).
• An output stream allow java program to write data to the destination (ex. File).

class HelloWorld { Note:

public static void main(String[] args) { In Hello World example, we have used
System.out.println("Hello, World!"); System.out to print a string.
}
} Here, the System.out is a type of output
stream.
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Working with File Class

• Before doing operations (reading/writing) on file, we need to learn how
to create file first.
• The java.io.File is the central class that works with files and
directories.
• The instance of this class represents
• the name of a file or directory on the host file system.
• When a File object is created, the system doesn't check to the
existence of a corresponding file/directory.
• If the file exists, a program can examine its attributes and perform
various operations on the file, such as renaming it, deleting it, reading
from or writing to it.
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More…
• getAbsolutePath() : String
• getAbsolutePath() returns the complete, non-relative path to the file.
• boolean f.delete() throws SecurityException
• Deletes the file.
• boolean f.renameTo(File f2) throws SecurityException
• Renames f to File f2. Returns true if successful.
•
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EXAMPLE: CREATE NEW FILE

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Using Path Names

• Path name—gives name of file and tells which directory the file is in
• Relative path name—gives the path starting with the directory that the program is
in.
• Absoulte path name—gives the path starting with the root directory (C:\) that the
program is in.

• Typical UNIX path name:

• /user/smith/home.work/java/FileClassDemo.java
• Typical Windows path name:
• D:\Work\Java\Programs\FileClassDemo.java
• When a backslash is used in a quoted string it must be written as two backslashes
since backslash is the escape character:
• "D:\\Work\\Java\\Programs\\FileClassDemo.java"
• Java will accept path names in UNIX or Windows format, regardless of which
operating system it is actually running on.
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Types of Streams
• Depending upon the type of data flow within the stream, it (stream)
can be classified into:
• Byte Stream
• Character Stream

• Based on the direction of data flow, it can be classified into:

• InputStream and OutputStream (Byte Stream type) or
• Reader and Writer (Character Stream type)

• Note: both inputstream and Reader utilities for reading data from source to program.
• both outputstream and Writer utilities for writing data to file from program.
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1) Byte Stream
• Byte stream is used to read and write a single byte (8 bits)
of data.
• All byte stream classes are derived from base abstract
classes called
• InputStream (to read) and OutputStream (to write).
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Java InputStream Class

• First, inputstream the way of reading data from source by java

program.
• The InputStream class is part of the java.io package
• It is an abstract superclass that represents an input stream of bytes.
• Since InputStream is an abstract class, it is not useful by itself.
• However, its subclasses can be used to read data.
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• Subclasses of InputStream
• In order to use the functionality of InputStream, we can use its subclasses.
• Some of them are:
• FileInputStream
• ByteArrayInputStream
• ObjectInputStream
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• Create an InputStream
• In order to create an InputStream, we must import the java.io.InputStream
package first.
• Once we import the package, here is how we can create the input stream.

• Here, we have created an input stream using FileInputStream. It is

because InputStream is an abstract class.
• Hence we cannot create an object of InputStream.
• Note: We can also create an input stream from other subclasses of InputStream.
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Methods of InputStream
• The InputStream class provides different methods that are
implemented by its subclasses.
• Here are some of the commonly used methods:
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Example: InputStream Using FileInputStream

Suppose we have a file named input.txt
with the following content.
“This is a line of text inside the input.txt file.”

Output
Available bytes in the file is: 49
Data read from the file:
This is a line of text inside the input.txt file.
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Java OutputStream Class

• First, outputstream the way of writing data to destination from java
program.
• The OutputStream class is part of the java.io package
• It is an abstract superclass that represents an output stream of bytes.
• Since OutputStream is an abstract class, it is not useful by itself.
• However, its subclasses can be used to write data.
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• Subclasses of OutputStream
• In order to use the functionality of OutputStream, we can use its subclasses.
Some of them are:
• FileOutputStream
• ByteArrayOutputStream
• ObjectOutputStream
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• Create an OutputStream
• In order to create OutputStream, we must import java.io.OutputStream package
first.
• Once we import the package, here is how we can create the output stream.

• Here, we have created an object of output stream using FileOutputStream.

• Because OutputStream is an abstract class, we cannot create an object of
OutputStream.
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• Methods of OutputStream
• The OutputStream class provides different methods that are
implemented by its subclasses. Here are some of the methods:
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Example: OutputStream Using FileOutputStream

Here, we have created an output stream

using the FileOutputStream class.

The output stream is now linked with the file

output.txt.
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2) Character Stream
• Character stream is used to read and write a single character of data.
• All the character stream classes are derived from base abstract
classes:
• Writer and
• Reader
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Java Writer Class

• The Writer class of the java.io package.
• It is an abstract superclass that represents a stream of characters.
• Since Writer is an abstract class, it is not useful by itself.
• However, its subclasses can be used to write data.
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• Subclasses of Writer
• In order to use the functionality of the Writer, we can use its subclasses.
Some of them are:
• BufferedWriter
• OutputStreamWriter
• FileWriter
• StringWriter

Output
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• Create a Writer
• In order to create a Writer, we must import the java.io.Writer package first.
• Once we import the package, here is how we can create the writer.

• Here, we have created a writer named output using the FileWriter class.
• It is because the Writer is an abstract class.
• Hence we cannot create an object of Writer.
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Example2: Writer Using FileWriter

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Java Reader Class

• The Reader class is part of the java.io package.
• It is an abstract superclass that represents a stream of characters.
• Since Reader is an abstract class, it is not useful by itself.
• However, its subclasses can be used to read data.

• Subclasses of Reader
• In order to use the functionality of Reader, we can use its subclasses.
• Some of them are:
• BufferedReader
• InputStreamReader
• FileReader
• StringReader
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• Create a Reader
• In order to create a Reader, we must import the java.io.Reader package first.
• Once we import the package, here is how we can create the reader.

• Here, we have created a reader using the FileReader class.

• It is because Reader is an abstract class.
• Hence we cannot create an object of Reader.
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Example: Reader Using FileReader

Suppose we have a file named
input.txt with the following content.

“This is a line of text inside the file.”

Output

Is there data in the stream? true

Data in the stream:
This is a line of text inside the file.
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• Read more on:

• Subclasses of InputStream/OutputStream
• Subclasses of Writer/Reader
• FilterClass

End