1. Java IO Tutorial
2. Java IO Overview
3. Java IO: Files
4. Java IO: Streams
5. Java IO: Pipes
6. Java IO: Networking
7. Java IO: Byte & Char Arrays
8. Java System.in, System.out, and System.error
9. Java IO: Input Parsing
10. Java IO: Readers and Writers
11. Java IO: Concurrent IO
12. Java IO: Exception Handling
13. Java InputStream
14. Java OutputStream
15. Java FileInputStream
16. Java FileOutputStream
17. Java RandomAccessFile
18. Java File
19. Java IO: PipedInputStream
20. Java IO: PipedOutputStream
21. Java ByteArrayInputStream
22. Java ByteArrayOutputStream
23. Java IO: FilterInputStream
24. Java IO: FilterOutputStream
25. Java BufferedInputStream
26. Java BufferedOutputStream
27. Java PushbackInputStream
28. Java IO: SequenceInputStream
29. Java DataInputStream
30. Java IO: DataOutputStream
31. Java IO: PrintStream
32. Java IO: ObjectInputStream
33. Java IO: ObjectOutputStream
34. Java IO: Serializable
35. Java Reader
36. Java Writer
37. Java InputStreamReader
38. Java OutputStreamWriter
39. Java FileReader
40. Java FileWriter
41. Java IO: PipedReader
42. Java IO: PipedWriter
43. Java IO: CharArrayReader
44. Java IO: CharArrayWriter
45. Java BufferedReader
46. Java BufferedWriter
47. Java IO: FilterReader
48. Java IO: FilterWriter
49. Java PushbackReader
50. Java IO: LineNumberReader
51. Java StreamTokenizer
52. Java IO: PrintWriter
53. Java IO: StringReader
54. Java IO: StringWriter

• Input and Output - Source and Destination
  • Streams
  • The InputStream, OutputStream, Reader and Writer
• Java IO Purposes and Features
• Java IO Class Overview Table

In this text I will try to give you an overview of the classes in the Java IO (java.io) package. More specifically, I will try to group the classes after their purpose. This grouping should make it easier for you in the future, to determine the purpose of a class, or find the class you need for a specific purpose.

Input and Output - Source and Destination

The terms "input" and "output" can sometimes be a bit confusing. The input of one part of an application is often the output of another. Is an OutputStream a stream where output is written to, or output comes out from (for you to read)? After all, an InputStream outputs its data to the reading program, doesn't it? Personally, I found this a bit confusing back in the day when I first started out learning about Java IO.

In an attempt to clear out this possible confusion, I have tried to put some different names on input and output to try to link them conceptually to where the input comes from, and where the output goes.

Java's IO package mostly concerns itself with the reading of raw data from a source and writing of raw data to a destination. The most typical sources and destinations of data are these:

• Files
• Pipes
• Network Connections
• In-memory Buffers (e.g. arrays)
• System.in, System.out, System.error

The diagram below illustrates the principle of a program reading data from a source and writing it to some destination:

Streams

IO Streams are a core concept in Java IO. A stream is a conceptually endless flow of data. You can either read from a stream or write to a stream. A stream is connected to a data source or a data destination. Streams in Java IO can be either byte based (reading and writing bytes) or character based (reading and writing characters).

The InputStream, OutputStream, Reader and Writer

A program that needs to read data from some source needs an InputStream or a Reader. A program that needs to write data to some destination needs an OutputStream or a Writer. This is also illustrated in the diagram below:

An InputStream or Reader is linked to a source of data. An OutputStream or Writer is linked to a destination of data.

Java IO Purposes and Features

Java IO contains many subclasses of the InputStream, OutputStream, Reader and Writer classes. The reason is, that all of these subclasses are addressing various different purposes. That is why there are so many different classes. The purposes addressed are summarized below:

• File Access
• Network Access
• Internal Memory Buffer Access
• Inter-Thread Communication (Pipes)
• Buffering
• Filtering
• Parsing
• Reading and Writing Text (Readers / Writers)
• Reading and Writing Primitive Data (long, int etc.)
• Reading and Writing Objects

These purposes are nice to know about when reading through the Java IO classes. They make it somewhat easier to understand what the classes are targeting.

Java IO Class Overview Table

Having discussed sources, destinations, input, output and the various IO purposes targeted by the Java IO classes, here is a table listing most (if not all) Java IO classes divided by input, output, being byte based or character based, and any more specific purpose they may be addressing, like buffering, parsing etc.