java reader vs. stream

Question

I was reading about Java I/O and found some interesting areas like streams, readers etc.

 InputStream input = new FileInputStream("input-file.txt");
 int data = input.read();
 while(data != -1){
   data = input.read();
 }

I can do the same thing by using Readers as follows:

Reader reader = new FileReader("input-file.txt");
 int data = reader.read();
 while(data != -1){
     char dataChar = (char) data;
     data = reader.read();
 }

As I know, Streams are used to retrieve input from continuously flowing data.

Now I am confused with the difference between Streams & readers; and if we wraps the stream with a buffered reader - how it break lines, since stream is a continuously flowing thing.

I found some reference sites like this site. But I can't understand the difference.

Please can someone please help me to understand?

Thanks @SotiriosDelimanolis , But I need a comparison. and i need to understand the procedure how break lines in BufferedReaders. Can you help me please? — Lakmal
– Lakmal, Commented May 22, 2014 at 6:20
An InputStream isn't a Stream... that's a totally different thing. — Chris Martin
– Chris Martin, Commented May 22, 2014 at 6:51
Look at the source - grepcode.com/file_/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/… - A FileReader is just an InputStreamReader and a FileInputStream. — Chris Martin
– Chris Martin, Commented May 22, 2014 at 6:59
The comparison you need is right there in the Javadoc: This abstract class is the superclass of all classes representing an input stream of bytes and Abstract class for reading character streams. There isn't any more to it than that. — user207421
– user207421, Commented May 22, 2014 at 7:17

Manish Mudgal · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-22 06:13:41Z

4

Readers are to read text data with particular character encoding (UTF-8, ISO etc..)

while on the other hand, streams are binary data.

They work same but there parent classes are different.

in a nutshell, if you have to read binary data and save it somewhere, use stream.

If you have to read text in a particular encoding and then play with it, then use readers.

Hope this answers.

answered May 22, 2014 at 6:13

Manish Mudgal

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4 Comments

Lakmal Over a year ago

So basically readers what readers doing is read from stream and encode to characters. am i right. and if we wraps the stream with a buffered reader, how it break lines since stream is a continuously flowing thing ?

Manish Mudgal Over a year ago

line breaks are read by newline character \n . this functionality is inside readLine(). It reads characters until it finds \n.. Yes you are right in first part.

Lakmal Over a year ago

so, if i'm using bufferedReader , but doesn't have line breaks.

Lakmal Over a year ago

whole text means, whole buffered string until that time ?

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