29-May-20

Input/Output

Object Oriented Programming

http://softeng.polito.it/courses/09CBI
Version 4.1.0 - May 2019
© Marco Torchiano, 2019

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Stream
▪ All I/O operations rely on the abstraction of
stream (flow of elements)
▪ A stream can be linked to:
 A file on the disk
 Standard input, output, error
 A network connection
 A data-flow from/to whichever hardware device
▪ I/O operations work in the same way with
all kinds of stream

Stream
▪ Package: java.io
▪ Stream of chars (Unicode - 16 bit)
 Reader / Writer
− All characters
▪ Stream of bytes (8 bit)
 InputStream / OutputStream
− Binary data, sounds, images
▪ All related exceptions are subclasses
of IOException

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Byte vs. Char Oriented Streams

Class Diagram0 2015/05/11 powered
pkg

Application

byte char

InputStream OutputStream Reader Writer File

Encoding / Decoding

Data

Byte vs. Char Example

Class Diagram0 2015/05/11 powered
pkg

Application

[c316,a816] ['è']

InputStream OutputStream Reader Writer File

'è'
Encoding / Decoding

Unicode charset
c3a816

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Class Diagram1 2015/05/11 powered by

pkg

Readers
BufferedReader LineNum berReader

CharArrayReader

FilterReader PushBack Reader

Reader

InputStream Reader FileReader

PipedReader

StringReader

Reader (abstract)
void close()
− Close the stream.
int read()
− Read a single character:
− Returns -1 when end of stream
int read(char[] cbuf)
− Read characters into an array.
int read(char[] cbuf,
int off, int len) Blocking methods
i.e. stop until
− Read characters into a portion • data available,
of an array. • I/O error, or
• end of stream
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Reader (abstract)
▪ boolean ready()
− Tell whether the stream is ready to be read.
▪ void reset()
− Reset the stream, restart from beginning
▪ long skip(long n)
− Skip n characters

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Read a char
int ch = r.read();
char unicode = (char) ch;
System.out.print(unicode);
r.close();

Character ch unicode
‘A’ 0…00000000 01000001bin = 65dec 65
‘\n’ 0…00000000 00001101bin = 13dec 13
End of file 1…11111111 11111111bin = -1dec -

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Read a line
public static String readLine(Reader r)
throws IOException{
StringBuffer res= new StringBuffer();
int ch = r.read();
if(ch == -1) return null; // END OF FILE!
while( ch != -1 ){
char unicode = (char) ch;
if(unicode == '\n') break;
if(unicode != '\r’) res.append(unicode);
ch = r.read();
}
return res.toString();
}

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Writers
Writers
pk g
2015/05/12 powered

BufferedWriter

CharArrayWriter

FilterWriter

Writer OutputStream Writer FileWriter

PipedWriter

PrintWriter

StringWriter

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Writer (abstract)
void write(int c)
 Write a single character.
void write(char[] cbuf)
Write an array of characters.

void write(char[] cbuf, int off, int len)
 Write a portion of an array of characters.
void write(String str)
 Write a string.
close()
 Close the stream, flushing it first.
abstract void flush()
 Flush the stream.
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Input streams
InputStreams 2015/05/12 powered by A
pk g

ByteArrayInputStream

FileInputStream DataInputStream

FilterInputStream LineNum berInputStream

InputStream
ObjectInputStream PushBack InputStream

PipedInputStream

SequenceInputStream

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InputStream
void close()
 Closes this input stream and releases any
system resources associated with the stream.
int read()
 Reads the next byte of data from the input
stream.
int read(byte[] b)
 Reads some bytes from the input stream and
stores them into the buffer array b.
int read(byte[] b, int off, int len)
 Reads up to len bytes of data from the input
stream into an array of bytes.

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InputStream
int available()
 Number of bytes that can be read (or skipped
over) from this input stream without blocking.
void reset()
 Repositions this stream to the position at the
time the mark method was last called.
long skip(long n)
 Skips over and discards n bytes of data from
this input stream.

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OutputStreams 2015/05/12 powered by A

Output streams
pk g

ByteArrayOutputStream

FileOutputStream BufferedOutputStream

OutputStream FilterOutputStream DataOutputStream

ObjectOutputStream PrintStream

PipedOutputStream

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OutputStream
void write(byte[] b)
 Writes b.length bytes from the specified byte array to this
output stream.
void write(byte[] b, int off, int len)
 Writes len bytes from the specified byte array starting at
offset off to this output stream.
void write(int b)
 Writes the specified byte to this output stream.
void close()
 Closes this output stream and releases any system
resources associated with this stream.
void flush()
 Flushes this output stream and forces any buffered output
bytes to be written out.

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Stream specializations
▪ Memory
▪ Pipe
▪ File
▪ Buffered
▪ Printed
▪ Interpreted

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Conversion byte <-> char

▪ InputStreamReader
char  byte
▪ OutputStreamWriter
char → byte
▪ The constructors allow specifying a
charset to decode/encode the byte
to/from characters

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Read/Write in memory
▪ CharArrayReader
▪ CharArrayWriter
▪ StringReader
▪ StringWriter
 R/W chars from/to array or String
▪ ByteArrayInputStream
▪ ByteArrayOutputStream
 R/W bytes from/to array in memory

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R/W of Pipe
▪ Pipes are used for inter-thread
communication they must be used in
connected pairs
▪ PipedReader
▪ PipedWriter
 R/W chars from pipe
▪ PipedInputStream
▪ PipedOutputStream
 R/W bytes from pipe

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R/W of File
▪ Used for reading/writing files
▪ FileReader
▪ FileWriter
 R/W chars from file
▪ FileInputStream
▪ FileOutputStream
 R/W bytes from file

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Copy text file

Reader src = new FileReader(args[0]);
Writer dest = new FileWriter(args[1]);
int in;
while( (in=src.read()) != -1){
dest.write(in);
}
src.close(); One char at a time
dest.close(); is higly inefficient!

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Copy text file with buffer

Reader src = new FileReader(args[0]);
Writer dest = new FileWriter(args[1]);
char[] buffer = new char[4096];
int n;
while((n = src.read(buffer))!=-1){
dest.write(buffer,0,n);
}
src.close(); The buffered version
dest.close(); is 10 times faster

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Buffered
▪ BufferedInputStream
BufferedInputStream(InputStream i)
BufferedInputStream(InputStream i, int s)
▪ BufferedOutputStream
▪ BufferedReader
readLine()
▪ BufferedWriter

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Printed streams
▪ PrintStream(OutputStream o)
 Provides general printing methods for all
primitive types, String, and Object
− print()
− println()
 Designed to work with basic byte-
oriented console
 Does not throw IOException, but it sets
a bit, to be checked with method
checkError()

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Standard in & out

▪ Default input and output streams are
defined in class System

class System {
//…
static InputStream in;
static PrintStream out;
static PrintStream err;
}

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Replacing standard streams

▪ Default streams can be replaced
 setIn(), setOut(), setErr()
String input = "This is\nthe input\n";
InputStream altInput = new
ByteArrayInputStream(input.getBytes());
InputStream oldIn = System.in;
System.setIn(altInput);
readLines();
System.setIn(oldIn);

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Interpreted streams
▪ Translate primitive types into / from
standard format
 Typically on a file
▪ DataInputStream(InputStream i)
 readByte(), readChar(), readDouble(),
readFloat(), readInt(), readLong(),
readShort(), ..
▪ DataOutputStream(OutputStream o)
 like write()

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Streams and URLs

▪ Streams can be linked to URL

URL page = new URL(url);

InputStream in = page.openStream();

 Be careful about the type of file you are

downloading.

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URL
▪ Represents a URL
 Constructorthrows a
MalformedURLException
▪ Provide getters for URL portions:
− Protocol, Host, Port
− Path, Query, Anchor (Ref)
▪ Method openStream() opens a
connection and returns the relative
InputStream

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Download file
URL home = new URL("http://…");
URLConnection con = home.openConnection();
String ctype = con.getContentType();
if(ctype.equals("text/html")){
Reader r = new InputStreamReader(
con.getInputStream());
Writer w = new OutputStreamWriter(System.out);
char[] buffer = new char[4096];
while(true){
int n = r.read(buffer);
if(n==-1) break;
w.write(buffer,0,n);
}
r.close(); w.close();
}

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Stream as resources
▪ Streams consume OS resources
 Should be closed as soon as possible to
release resources

String readFirstLine(String path)

throws IOException{
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(
new FileReader(path));
String l = br.readLine();
br.close()
return l
}
What happens in case of
exception in readLine ?

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Missing close with exception

String readFirstLine(String path)
throws IOException{
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(
new FileReader(path));

String l = br.readLine();
br.close()
return l
}
What happens in case of
exception in readLine ?

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Catch and close

String readFirstLine(String path)
throws IOException {
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(
new FileReader(path));
try {
String l = br.readLine();
br.close();
return l
} catch(IOException e){
br.close();
throw e;
} Complex and does not
} close in case of Error

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Finally close
String readFirstLine(String path)
throws IOException {
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(
new FileReader(path));
try {
return br.readLine();
} finally {
if(br!=null) br.close();
}
}
Executed in any case
before exiting the method

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Try-with-resource
String readFirstLine(String path)
throws IOException {
try(
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(
new FileReader(path))){
return br.readLine();
}
}
Works since BuffereReader
implements Autocloseable
public interface AutoCloseable{
public void close();
}

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SERIALIZATION

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Serialization
▪ Read / write of an object imply:
 read/write attributes (and optionally the
type) of the object
 Correctly separating different elements
 When reading, create an object and set all
attributes values
▪ These operations (serialization) are
automated by
 ObjectInputStream
 ObjectOutputStream

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Using Serialization
▪ Methods to read/write objects are:
void writeObject(Object)
Object readObject()
▪ ONLY objects implementing interface
Serializable can be serialized
 Thisinterface is empty
Just used to avoid serialization of
objects, without permission of the class
developer

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Type recovery
▪ When reading, an object is created
▪ ... but which is its type?
▪ In practice, not always a precise
downcast is required:
 Only if specific methods need to be
invoked
 A downcast to a common ancestor can be
used to avoid identifying the exact class

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Saving Objects with references

▪ Serialization is applied recursively to
object in references
▪ Referenced objects must implement
the Serializable interface
▪ Specific fields can be excluded from
serialization by marking them as
transient

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Saving Objects with references

▪ An ObjectOutputStream saves all objects
referred by its attributes
 objects serialized are numbered in the stream
 references are saved as ordering numbers in the
stream
▪ If two saved objects point to a common
one, this is saved just once
 Before saving an object, ObjectOutputStream
checks if it has not been already saved
 Otherwise it saves just the reference

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Serialization implements
public class Student
Serializable {…}
List<Student> students=new LinkedList<>();
students.add( ... );
...
ObjectOutputStream serializer =
new ObjectOutputStream(
new FileOutputStream(”std.dat"));
serializer.writeObject(students);
serializer.close();

ObjectInputStream deserializer =
new ObjectInputStream(
new FileInputStream("std.dat"));
Object retrieved = deserializer.readObject();
deserializer.close();
List<Student> l = (List<Student>)retrieved;

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FILE SYSTEM

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File
▪ Abstract pathname
 directory, file, file separator
 absolute, relative
▪ convert abstract pathname <--> string
▪ Methods:
 create() delete() exists() , mkdir()
 getName() getAbsolutePath(), getPath(),
getParent(), isFile(), isDirectory()
 isHidden(), length()
 listFiles(), renameTo()

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Example: list files

▪ List the files contained in the current
working folder
File cwd = new File(".");
for(File f : cwd.listFiles()){
System.out.println(f.getName()+ " "
+ f.length());
}

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New IO (nio)
▪ Paths and Files
 Abstract path manipulation
 Static methods

▪ Buffer and Channels

 Bufferoriented IO
 Leverages efficient memory transfers
(DMA)

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Class Path
▪ Represents path in the file system
 Components extraction:
− E.g. getFileName()
 Navigation:
− E.g. getParent(), getRoot()
 Relative paths
− relativize()
− isAbsolute()
− resolve()

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Class Files
▪ Provides methods to operate on Paths
 Copy content: copy()
 Create: createFile()
 Test properties: isWritable()
 Navigate: list(), find()
 Create stream: newInputStream()
 Create channel: newByteChannel()
 Read: lines()
 Write: write()

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Example
▪ Compute max line length

Path d = Paths.get("file.txt")
int maxLen = 0;
if(Files.exists(d)){
maxLen = Files.lines(d).
mapToInt(String::length).
max().getAsInt();
}

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Tokenizers
▪ StringTokenizer
 Works on
− String to be tokenized
− set of delimiters
− Default: " \t\n\r\f"
▪ Divides a String in tokens (sequence of
characters separated by delimiters),
returning the tokens one by one
 hasMoreTokens(): checks for more tokens
 nextToken(): returns next token
− Does not distinguish identifiers, numbers,
comments, quoted strings

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Tokenizers
▪ StreamTokenizer
 Works on a stream (Reader)
 More sophisticated, recognizes
identifiers, comments, quoted string,
numbers
 use symbol table and flag
 nextToken(), returns the type
− TT_EOF if at the end of file
 Attribute sval contains the token

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Summary
▪ Java IO is based on the stream
abstraction
▪ Two main stream families:
 Char oriented: Reader/Writer
 Byte oriented: Input/OutputStream

▪ There are streams specialized for

 Memory, File, Pipe, Buffered, Print

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Summary
▪ Streams resources need to be closed
as soon as possible
 Try-with-resource construct guarantee
resource closure even in case of
exception
▪ Serialization means saving/restoring
objects using Object streams
 Serializable interface enables it

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