Files and I/O

The java.io package contains nearly every class you might ever need to perform input and output (I/O) in Java. All these streams represent an input source and an output destination. The stream in the java.io package supports many data such as primitives, Object, localized characters, etc.

Stream

A stream can be defined as a sequence of data. there are two kinds of Streams

1. InPutStream: The InputStream is used to read data from a source.

2. OutPutStream: the OutputStream is used for writing data to a destination.

Java provides strong but flexible support for I/O related to Files and networks but this tutorial covers very basic functionality related to streams and I/O.

Byte Streams

Java byte streams are used to perform input and output of 8-bit bytes. Though there are many classes related to byte streams but the most frequently used classes are , FileInputStream and FileOutputStream. Following is an example which makes use of these two classes to copy an input file into an output file:

import java.io.*;

public class CopyFile {
   public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
   {
      FileInputStream in = null;
      FileOutputStream out = null;

      try {
         in = new FileInputStream("input.txt");
         out = new FileOutputStream("output.txt");
       
         int c;
         while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
            out.write(c);
         }
      }finally {
         if (in != null) {
            in.close();
         }
         if (out != null) {
            out.close();
         }
      }
   }
}

Now let's have a file input.txt with the following content:

This is test for copy file.

As a next step, compile above program and execute it, which will result in creating output.txt file with the same content as we have in input.txt. So let's put above code in CopyFile.java file and do the following:

$javac CopyFile.java
$java CopyFile

Character Streams

Java Byte streams are used to perform input and output of 8-bit bytes, where as Java Character streams are used to perform input and output for 16-bit unicode. Though there are many classes related to character streams but the most frequently used classes are , FileReader and FileWriter.. Though internally FileReader uses FileInputStream and FileWriter uses FileOutputStream but here major difference is that FileReader reads two bytes at a time and FileWriter writes two bytes at a time.

We can re-write above example which makes use of these two classes to copy an input file (having unicode characters) into an output file:

import java.io.*;

public class CopyFile {
   public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
   {
      FileReader in = null;
      FileWriter out = null;

      try {
         in = new FileReader("input.txt");
         out = new FileWriter("output.txt");
       
         int c;
         while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
            out.write(c);
         }
      }finally {
         if (in != null) {
            in.close();
         }
         if (out != null) {
            out.close();
         }
      }
   }
}

Now let's have a file input.txt with the following content:

This is test for copy file.

As a next step, compile above program and execute it, which will result in creating output.txt file with the same content as we have in input.txt. So let's put above code in CopyFile.java file and do the following:

$javac CopyFile.java
$java CopyFile

Standard Streams

All the programming languages provide support for standard I/O where user's program can take input from a keyboard and then produce output on the computer screen. If you are aware if C or C++ programming languages, then you must be aware of three standard devices STDIN, STDOUT and STDERR. Similar way Java provides following three standard streams

Standard Input: This is used to feed the data to user's program and usually a keyboard is used as standard input stream and represented as System.in.

Standard Output: This is used to output the data produced by the user's program and usually a computer screen is used to standard output stream and represented as System.out.

Standard Error: This is used to output the error data produced by the user's program and usually a computer screen is used to standard error stream and represented as System.err.

Following is a simple program which creates InputStreamReader to read standard input stream until the user types a "q":

import java.io.*;

public class ReadConsole {
   public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException
   {
      InputStreamReader cin = null;

      try {
         cin = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
         System.out.println("Enter characters, 'q' to quit.");
         char c;
         do {
            c = (char) cin.read();
            System.out.print(c);
         } while(c != 'q');
      }finally {
         if (cin != null) {
            cin.close();
         }
      }
   }
}

Let's keep above code in ReadConsole.java file and try to compile and execute it as below. This program continues reading and outputting same character until we press 'q':

$javac ReadConsole.java
$java ReadConsole

Enter characters, 'q' to quit.
1
1
e
e
q
q

Directories in Java:

A directory is a File which can contains a list of other files and directories. You use File object to create directories, to list down files available in a directory. For complete detail check a list of all the methods which you can call on File object and what are related to directories.

Creating Directories:

There are two useful File utility methods, which can be used to create directories:

The mkdir( ) method creates a directory, returning true on success and false on failure. Failure indicates that the path specified in the File object already exists, or that the directory cannot be created because the entire path does not exist yet.

The mkdirs() method creates both a directory and all the parents of the directory.

Following example creates "/tmp/user/java/bin" directory:

import java.io.File;

public class CreateDir {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      String dirname = "/tmp/user/java/bin";
      File d = new File(dirname);
      // Create directory now.
      d.mkdirs();
  }
}
Compile and execute above code to create "/tmp/user/java/bin".

Note: Java automatically takes care of path separators on UNIX and Windows as per conventions. If you use a forward slash (/) on a Windows version of Java, the path will still resolve correctly.