Reading from socket input stream

Question

I'm trying to determine the best way to transfer data through a socket between a client and server. Currently I have a BufferedReader that reads one character at a time (or however many characters have arrived since the last iteration). Through each iteration, it pulls the data received so far and puts it into an array. When the '|' character is read, it knows that the current instruction is done.

I know what I have so far is grossly inefficient and burns the CPU, but I'm a little unclear as to the differences between all the ways to read from a socket input stream. What would I use to not have to read each character at a time, but rather to wait until the input stream is finished receiving the current instruction (which would be terminated by "\n")?

If your commands are \n-terminated, why read char by char at all instead of calling BufferedReader.readLine()? — Stefan Haustein
– Stefan Haustein, Commented Nov 10, 2013 at 23:58
As I understand it, and perhaps I may be wrong, doesn't readline read what's currently in the buffer? So Let's say I'm sending the word "hello", and only "he" has arrived, doesn't it only read that? — Taylor Hill
– Taylor Hill, Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 0:07
Readline blocks until the full line is read. You get partial data only for the char array based read() methods. — Stefan Haustein
– Stefan Haustein, Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 0:17

JamoBox · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-11 00:17:56Z

1

I find the best way is to create a new thread for each socket/client that listens for input. readLine() always works for me fine. Perhaps this might help you out a bit.

answered Nov 11, 2013 at 0:17

JamoBox

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