Using the Data Sink Streams

Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson Lesson Contents

Trail:
Essential Java Classes

Lesson:
Reading and Writing (but no 'rithmetic)

Help on searching
is available.
Search technology
by Excite, Inc.

Using the Data Sink Streams
Data sink streams read from or write to specialized data sinks such as strings, files, or pipes. Typically, for each reader or input stream intended to read from a specific kind of input source, java.io contains a parallel writer or output stream that can create it. The following table gives java.io's data sink streams.

Sink Type Character Streams Byte Streams

Memory CharArrayReader,
CharArrayWriter ByteArrayInputStream,
ByteArrayOutputStream

StringReader,
StringWriter StringBufferInputStream

Pipe PipedReader,
PipedWriter PipedInputStream,
PipedOutputStream

File FileReader,
FileWriter FileInputStream,
FileOutputStream

Note that both the character stream group and the byte stream group contain parallel pairs of classes that operate on the same data sinks. These are described next:

CharArrayReader and CharArrayWriter
ByteArrayInputStream and ByteArrayOutputStream
Use these streams to read from and write to memory. You create these streams on an existing array and then use the read and write methods to read from or write to the array.
FileReader and FileWriter
FileInputStream and FileOutputStream
Collectively called file streams, these streams are used to read from or write to a file on the native file system. How to Use File Streams has an example that uses FileReader and FileWriter to copy the contents of one file into another.
PipedReader and PipedWriter
PipedInputStream and PipedOutputStream
Implement the input and output components of a pipe. Pipes are used to channel the output from one program (or thread) into the input of another. See PipedReader and PipedWriter in action in How to Use Pipe Streams.
StringReader and StringWriter
StringBufferInputStream
Use StringReader to read characters from a String as it lives in memory. Use StringWriter to write to a String. StringWriter collects the characters written to it in a StringBuffer, which can then be converted to a String. StringBufferInputStream is similar to StringReader, except that it reads bytes from a StringBuffer.

Start of Tutorial > Start of Trail > Start of Lesson Lesson Contents