Java - 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 −

 InPutStream − The InputStream is used to read data from a source.

 OutPutStream − The OutputStream is used for writing data to a destination.

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 −

Example

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.

creating output.txt file with the same content as we have in input.txt. So let's put the

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, whereas

Java Character streams are used to perform input and output for 16-bit unicode.

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 the major difference is that FileReader reads two bytes

at a time and FileWriter writes two bytes at a time.

We can re-write the above example, which makes the use of these two classes to

copy an input file (having unicode characters) into an output file −

Example

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 the 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 the

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 the user's

program can take input from a keyboard and then produce an output on the

computer screen.

If you are aware of C or C++ programming languages, then you must be aware of

three standard devices STDIN, STDOUT and STDERR. Similarly, Java provides the

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 for 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 for 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" −

Example

import java.io.*;

public class ReadConsole {

public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {

InputStreamReader cin = null;

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 the above code in ReadConsole.java file and try to compile and execute

it as shown in the following program. This program continues to read and output the

same character until we press 'q' −

$javac ReadConsole.java

$java ReadConsole

Enter characters, 'q' to quit.

e
q

Reading and Writing Files

As described earlier, a stream can be defined as a sequence of data.

The InputStream is used to read data from a source and the OutputStream is

used for writing data to a destination.

Here is a hierarchy of classes to deal with Input and Output streams.

The two important streams are FileInputStream and FileOutputStream.

FileInputStream

This stream is used for reading data from the files. Objects can be created using the

keyword new and there are several types of constructors available.

to read the file −

InputStream f = new FileInputStream("C:/java/hello");

Following constructor takes a file object to create an input stream object to read the

file. First we create a file object using File() method as follows −

File f = new File("C:/java/hello");

InputStream f = new FileInputStream(f);

Once you have InputStream object in hand, then there is a list of helper methods

which can be used to read to stream or to do other operations on the stream.

Sr.No. Method & Description

1 public void close() throws IOException{}

This method closes the file output stream. Releases any system resources

associated with the file. Throws an IOException.

2 protected void finalize()throws IOException {}

This method cleans up the connection to the file. Ensures that the close

method of this file output stream is called when there are no more

references to this stream. Throws an IOException.

3 public int read(int r)throws IOException{}

This method reads the specified byte of data from the InputStream.
 Returns an int. Returns the next byte of data and -1 will be returned if it's

the end of the file.

4 public int read(byte[] r) throws IOException{}

This method reads r.length bytes from the input stream into an array.

Returns the total number of bytes read. If it is the end of the file, -1 will be

returned.

5 public int available() throws IOException{}

Gives the number of bytes that can be read from this file input stream.

Returns an int.

There are other important input streams available, for more detail you can refer to

the following links −

 ByteArrayInputStream

 DataInputStream

FileOutputStream

FileOutputStream is used to create a file and write data into it. The stream would

create a file, if it doesn't already exist, before opening it for output.

Here are two constructors which can be used to create a FileOutputStream object.

Following constructor takes a file name as a string to create an input stream object

to write the file −

OutputStream f = new FileOutputStream("C:/java/hello")

the file. First, we create a file object using File() method as follows −

File f = new File("C:/java/hello");

OutputStream f = new FileOutputStream(f);

Once you have OutputStream object in hand, then there is a list of helper methods,

which can be used to write to stream or to do other operations on the stream.

Sr.No. Method & Description

1 public void close() throws IOException{}

This method closes the file output stream. Releases any system resources

associated with the file. Throws an IOException.

2 protected void finalize()throws IOException {}

This method cleans up the connection to the file. Ensures that the close

method of this file output stream is called when there are no more

references to this stream. Throws an IOException.

3 public void write(int w)throws IOException{}

This methods writes the specified byte to the output stream.

4 public void write(byte[] w)

Writes w.length bytes from the mentioned byte array to the OutputStream.
There are other important output streams available, for more detail you can refer to

the following links −

 ByteArrayOutputStream

 DataOutputStream

Example

Following is the example to demonstrate InputStream and OutputStream −

import java.io.*;

public class fileStreamTest {

public static void main(String args[]) {

try {

byte bWrite [] = {11,21,3,40,5};

OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream("test.txt");

for(int x = 0; x < bWrite.length ; x++) {

os.write( bWrite[x] ); // writes the bytes

os.close();

InputStream is = new FileInputStream("test.txt");

int size = is.available();

for(int i = 0; i < size; i++) {

System.out.print((char)is.read() + " ");

is.close();

} catch (IOException e) {

System.out.print("Exception");

The above code would create file test.txt and would write given numbers in binary

format. Same would be the output on the stdout screen.

File Navigation and I/O

There are several other classes that we would be going through to get to know the

basics of File Navigation and I/O.

 File Class

 FileReader Class

 FileWriter Class

Directories in Java

A directory is a File which can contain 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 −

Example

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 the 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.

Listing Directories
You can use list( ) method provided by File object to list down all the files and

directories available in a directory as follows −

Example

import java.io.File;

public class ReadDir {

public static void main(String[] args) {

File file = null;

String[] paths;

try {

// create new file object

file = new File("/tmp");

// array of files and directory

paths = file.list();

// for each name in the path array

for(String path:paths) {

// prints filename and directory name

System.out.println(path);

} catch (Exception e) {

// if any error occurs

e.printStackTrace();

}
}

This will produce the following result based on the directories and files available in

your /tmp directory −

Output

test1.txt

test2.txt

ReadDir.java

ReadDir.class