UNIT-V

Managing Input/Output Files in JAVA

Introduction
 Variables and arrays for storing data inside the programs. limitations:
 The data is lost when variable goes out of scope or when the program terminates.
 That is data stored is released when program terminates.
 It is difficult to handle large volumes of data.
 Solution - by storing data on secondary storage devices such as floppy or hard disks.
 The data is stored in these devices using the concept of Files and such data is often called
persistent data.
File Processing
 Storing and manipulating data using files is known as file processing.
 Reading/Writing of data in a file can be performed at the level of bytes, characters, or fields
depending on application requirements.
 Java also provides capabilities to read and write class objects directly.
 The process of reading and writing objects is called object serialisation.
I/O and Data Movement
 The flow of data into a program (input) may come from different devices such as keyboard,
mouse, memory, disk, network, or another program.
 The flow of data out of a program (output) may go to the screen, printer, memory, disk,
network, another program.
 Both input and output share a certain common property such as unidirectional movement of
data
 a sequence of bytes and characters and support to the sequential access to the data.

Streams
 Java Uses the concept of Streams to represent the ordered sequence of data, a common
characteristic shared by all I/O devices.
 Streams presents a uniform, easy to use, object oriented interface between the program and I/O
devices.
 A stream in Java is a path along which data flows (like a river or pipe along which water flows).

Stream Types
 The concepts of sending data from one stream to another (like a pipe feeding into another pipe)
has made streams powerful tool for file processing.
 Stream: an object that either delivers data to its destination (screen, file, etc.) or that takes data
from a source (keyboard, file, etc.)
 it acts as a buffer between the data source and destination
 Connecting streams can also act as filters.

writes
 Streams are classified into two basic types:
 Input Steam
 Output Stream

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  Input stream: a stream that provides input to a program
 System.in is an input stream
 Output stream: a stream that accepts output from a program
 System.out is an output stream
 A stream connects a program to an I/O object
 System.out connects a program to the screen
 System.in connects a program to the keyboard

I/O: General Scheme

In General:
 Reading (writing):
 open an input (output) stream
 while there is more information
read(write) next data from the stream
 close the stream.
In JAVA:
 Create a stream object and associate it with a disk-file
– Give the stream object the desired functionality
 while there is more information
read(write) next data from(to) the stream
 close the stream.
Java Stream Classes
 Input/Output related classes are defined in java.io package.
 Input/Output in Java is defined in terms of streams.
 A stream is a sequence of data, of no particular length.
 Java classes can be categorised into two groups based on the data type one which they
operate:
 Byte streams
 Operations on Bytes
 Character Streams
 Operations on Characters
Byte-based streams – stores data in binary format
 Binary files – created from byte-based streams, read by a program that converts data to
human-readable format
Character-based streams – stores data as a sequence of characters
 Text files – created from character-based streams, can be read by text editors

Streams

Byte Streams Character streams

Operated on 8 bit (1 byte) data. Operates on 16-bit (2 byte) unicode characters.

Input streams/Output streams Readers/ Writers

Byte Stream
 Byte streams are defined using two class hierarchies, InputStream and OutputStream
 Two of the most important are read() and write().

Byte Input Streams - Hierarchy of Input Stream Classes

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 InputStream
 the abstract class that describes stream input.
 To use it, we must define
InputStream is = new BufferedInputStream(System.in);
is.read();
The InputStream class defines methods for performing input functions such as
 Reading Bytes
 Closing Streams
 Marking positions in Streams
 Skipping ahead in a stream
 Finding the number of bytes in a stream.
Byte Input Streams – operations

public abstract int read() Reads a byte and returns as a integer 0-255

public int read(byte[] buf, int offset, int Reads and stores the bytes in buf starting at offset.
count) Count is the maximum read.

public int read(byte[] buf) Same as previous offset=0 and length=buf.length()

public long skip(long count) Skips count bytes.

public int available() Returns the number of bytes that can be read.

public void close() Closes stream

 The class DataInputStream extends FilterInputStream and implements the interface DataInput.

Example

Output Streams Classes

 Output Streams includes methods
 Writing Bytes
 Closing Streams
 Flushing Streams

Byte Streams - Hierarchy of Output Stream Classes

Byte Output Streams – operations

public abstract void write(int b) Write b as bytes.

public void write(byte[] buf, int offset, int count) Write count bytes starting from offset in buf.

public void write(byte[] buf) Same as previous offset=0 and count =

buf.length()

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public void flush() Flushes the stream.

public void close() Closes stream

Byte Output Stream – example
 Read from standard in and write to standard out

import java.io.*;
class ReadWrite {
public static void main(string[] args)
throws IOException
{
int b;
while (( b = System.in.read()) != -1)
{
System.out.write(b);
}

}
Character Stream Classes
 Character streams are defined by using two class hierarchies.
 The two abstract classes are
 Reader Stream Classes and
 Writer Stream Classes
 These abstract classes handle Unicode character streams.
Reader Class Hierarchy

Writer
 This is an abstract class that describes character stream output.
 The format is:
Writer w = new OutputStreamer(System.out);
w.write(“This is the output”); //prepares to send
w.flush(); // send it out

Writer Class Hierarchy

Example

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Using Streams
 Table 16.3
 List of Tasks and Classes implementing them
Other Useful I/O Classes
 Specialized functions
 Random Access File
 Stream Tokenizer
Implementation of the RandomAccess File

Using the File Class

Operations on Files
 Creating a file
 Opening a file
 Closing a file
 Deleting a file
 Getting the name of a file
 Getting the size of a file
 Checking the existence of a file
 Renaming a file
 Checking whether the file is writable
 Checking whether the file is readable
Input/Output Exceptions
 When creating files and performing I/O operations on them, the systems generates errors.
 The basic I/O related exception classes,
 EOFException – signals that end of the file is reached unexpectedly during input.
 FileNotFoundException – file could not be opened
 InterruptedIOException – I/O operations have been interrupted
 IOException – signals that I/O exception of some sort has occurred – very general I/O
exception.
Syntax
 Each I/O statement or a group of I/O statements much have an exception handler around
it/them as follows:
try {
…// I/O statements – open file, read, etc.
}
catch(IOException e) // or specific type exception
{
…//message output statements
}

Creation of Files
 A filename is a unique string of characters that helps to identify file on the disk.
 2 parts
 1. Primary name
 2. Optional period with extension
Examples: Input.data , Rand.dat
 A file stream can be defined using the classes of
 Reader/InputStream for reading data
 Writer/OutputStream for writing data

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Creation of Files
 There are 2 ways of initialising file stream objects:
 Passing file name (directly) to the stream constructor
 Passing File Object (indirectly) :
 Manipulation operations are same once the file is opened.

Passing file name (directly)

FileInputStream fis; // Declare a file stream object
try
{
//Assign the filename to the file stream object
fis = new FileInputStream(“test.dat”);
....
}

Passing File Object (indirectly)

File inFIle;
InFile = new File(“test.dat”);
FileInputStream fis;
Try
{
//Give the value of the file object to the file stream object
fis = new FileInputStream(inFile);
…
}

Reading/ Writing Characters

 Example Program 16.1
 Fig 16.12

Reading/ Writing Bytes

 Example Program 16.2 & 16.3
 Five Tasks:
1. Select a Filename
2. Declare a file object
3. Give the selected name to the file object declared
4. Declare a file stream object
5. Connect the file to the file stream object.
Fig 16.11 Instantiating File Stream Objects

Handling Primitive Data Types

 Basic IO streams provide read/write methods that can only be used for reading/ writing bytes or
characters.
 To read/write primitive data type – Integers, Doubles
 Filter Classes
 Wrappers on existing input and output streams to filter data in the original
stream.
 Two Filter Classes used for creating “Data Streams “ for handling Primitive types are,
 DataInputStream and DataOutputStream

Hierarchy of Data Stream Classes

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 Class DataOutput
Interface
FilterOutputStream
DataOutputStream
 A Data stream for Input can be created as,
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(infile);
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
 A Data stream for Output can be created as,
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(infile);
DataInputStream dos = new DataInputStream(fis);
Example Program : 16.5 R/W Primitive Data

Data Input Stream Creation

 Create Input File Stream:
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(“InFile”);
 Create Input Data Stream:
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream( fis );
 The above statements wrap data input stream (dis) on file input stream (fis) and use it as a
“filter”.
 Methods Supported:
readBoolean(), readByte(), readChar(), readShort(), readInt(), readLong(), readFloat(), readDouble()

 They read data stored in file in binary format.

Data Output Stream Creation

 Create Output File Stream:
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(“OutFile”);
 Create Output Data Stream:
DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream( fos );
 The above statements wrap data output stream (dos) on file output stream (fos) and use it as a
“filter”.
 Methods Supported:
writeBoolean(), writeByte(), writeChar(), writeShort(), writeInt(), writeLong(), writeFloat(),
writeDouble()
 They write data to file in binary format.

Data Streams Flow via Filter

Write primitive data to the file using a filter.

dos fos

filter binary stream

Program mydata

 Read primitive data from the file using a filter.

fis dis

mydata binary stream filter

Program Screen

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Random Access Files
 sequential files –used for storing data and accessed (read/write) them in sequence.
 In most real world applications, it is necessary to access data in non-sequential order (e.g,
banking system) and append new data or update existing data.
 Java .io package supports RandomAccessFile class that allow us to create files that can be used
for reading and/or writing with random access.

The file can be open either in

 read mode (“r”) or
 read-write mode (“rw”)
myFileHandleName = new RandomAccessFile (“filename”, “mode”);
 The file pointer can be set to any to any location (measured in bytes) using seek() method prior
to reading or writing.
 Example Program:

Prgm 12: APPENDING AN EXISTING FILE

 All Java I/O classes are designed to operate with Exceptions.

 User Exceptions and your own handler with files to manger runtime errors.
 Subclasses FileReader / FileWriter support characters-based File I/O.
 FileInputStream and FileOutputStream classes support bytes-based File I/O.
 Buffered read/write operations support efficient I/O.
 DataInputStream and DataOutputStream classes support rich I/O functionality.
 RandomAccessFile supports access to any data items in files in any order.