Using Stream class to read and write bytes of files

When we develop an application, sometimes we need to read a file from disk. Not only character based files, but also byte/binary based files. To read/write character based files we use Writer and Reader class hierarchy, to read byte/binary based files we use InputSteam and OutputStream class hierarchy.

This article will show how to read binary files such as EXE, PDF, and make a copy of that file on different location on disk. We will open the file, read byte by byte, and write all the bytes we get to make a copy of that file.

I use three different way to get the bytes from the file as far as i know. I dont know which one is the best based on the performance or algorithm :p.

(Way 1)

File file = new File(PATH_TO_FILES);

fis = new FileInputStream(file);
dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(fis));

fos = new FileOutputStream(DESTINATION_PATH_AND_FILE_NAME);
dos = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fos));

byte b;
try{
	while(true){
		b = (byte) dis.readByte();

		dos.write(b);
	}
}
catch(EOFException e){
	System.err.println("Finish read end of file...");
}
finally{
        dos.close();
}

(Way 2)
File file = new File(PATH_TO_FILES);

fis = new FileInputStream(file);
dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(fis));

fos = new FileOutputStream(DESTINATION_PATH_AND_FILE_NAME);
dos = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fos));

byte[] b = new byte[(int) file.length()];

for(int i=0; i<b.length-1; i++)
{
	b&#91;i&#93; = dis.readByte();
}

dos.write(b);
dos.close();
&#91;/sourcecode&#93;</pre>

<strong>(Way 3)</strong>
<pre>
File file = new File(PATH_TO_FILES);

fis = new FileInputStream(file);
dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(fis));

fos = new FileOutputStream(DESTINATION_PATH_AND_FILE_NAME);
dos = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fos));

ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byte[] b = new byte[200];

while(true){
	int length = dis.read(b);

	System.out.println("read : " + length);

	if (length < 0) {
		break;
	}

	if(length > 0){
		baos.write(b, 0, length);
	}

}

dos.write(baos.toByteArray());
dos.close();

(Full source code)
/**
 * @author	: gardiary
 * @Waktu	: Jul 28, 2008, 4:33:14 PM
 *
 * StreamSample.java
 */
package test.filehandling;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.EOFException;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

public class StreamSample {
	private File file;
	private FileInputStream fis;
	private FileOutputStream fos;
	
	private DataInputStream dis;
	private DataOutputStream dos;
	
	public StreamSample()
	{
		file = new File("input/ajax-tutorial.pdf");		
	}
	
	public static void main(String args[])
	{
		StreamSample app = new StreamSample();
		
		app.copyFile1();
		System.out.println("Done copy file 1...");
		
		app.copyFile2();
		System.out.println("Done copy file 2...");
		
		app.copyFile3();
		System.out.println("Done copy file 3...");
		
		try{
			app.dis.close();
			app.fis.close();
		}
		catch(IOException ioe){
			ioe.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
	
	// copy file first way
	public void copyFile1()
	{
		openFileInput();
		
		try{
			fos = new FileOutputStream("output/copy-of-ajax-tutorial-1.pdf");
			dos = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fos));
			
			byte b;
			try{
				while(true){
					b = dis.readByte();
					
					dos.write(b);
				}
				
			}
			catch(EOFException e){
				System.err.println("Finish read end of file...");
			}
			
		}
		catch(IOException e){
			System.err.println("IOException...1");
		}
		finally{
			closeOutputStream(dos);
			closeOutputStream(fos);
		}
	}
	
	// copy file second way
	public void copyFile2()
	{
		openFileInput();
		
		try{
			fos = new FileOutputStream("output/copy-of-ajax-tutorial-2.pdf");
			dos = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fos));
			
			byte[] b = new byte[(int) file.length()];
			
			for(int i=0; i<b.length-1; i++)
			{
				b&#91;i&#93; = dis.readByte();
			}
			
			dos.write(b);
		}
		catch(IOException e){
			System.err.println("IOException...2");
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		finally{
			closeOutputStream(dos);
			closeOutputStream(fos);
		}
	}
	
	// copy file third way
	public void copyFile3()
	{
		ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
		byte&#91;&#93; b = new byte&#91;200&#93;;
	
		openFileInput();
		
		try{
			fos = new FileOutputStream("output/copy-of-ajax-tutorial-3.pdf");
			dos = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(fos));
			
			while(true){
				int length = dis.read(b);
				
				System.out.println("read : " + length);
				
				if (length < 0) {
			        break;
				}
				
				if(length > 0){
					baos.write(b, 0, length);
				}
								
			}
			
			dos.write(baos.toByteArray());
		}
		catch(IOException e){
			System.err.println("IOException...3");
		}
		finally{
			closeOutputStream(dos);
			closeOutputStream(fos);
		}
	}
	
	// open file for input
	public void openFileInput()
	{
		try{
			fis = new FileInputStream(file);
			dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(fis));
		}
		catch(FileNotFoundException e){
			System.err.println("File Not Found...!");
		}
	}
	
	// close output stream
	public void closeOutputStream(OutputStream os)
	{
		try{
			os.close();
		}
		catch(IOException ioe){
			System.err.println("Exception closing output stream");
		}
		
	}
}