java.io

Class InputStream

java.lang.Object

java.io.InputStream

public static class InputStream
extends Object

A readable source of bytes.

Most clients will use input streams that read data from the file system (FileInputStream), the network (Socket.getInputStream()/URLConnection.getInputStream()), or from an in-memory byte array (ByteArrayInputStream).

Use InputStreamReader to adapt a byte stream like this one into a character stream.

Most clients should wrap their input stream with BufferedInputStream. Callers that do only bulk reads may omit buffering.

Some implementations support marking a position in the input stream and resetting back to this position later. Implementations that don't return false from #markSupported() and throw an IOException when #reset() is called.

Subclassing InputStream

Subclasses that decorate another input stream should consider subclassing FilterInputStream, which delegates all calls to the source input stream.

All input stream subclasses should override both read() and read(byte[],int,int). The three argument overload is necessary for bulk access to the data. This is much more efficient than byte-by-byte access.

See Also:

OutputStream, Serialized Form

Method Summary

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, toString