Two types of files:
| Constructors | Description |
| Text | A file that contains characters. The fields are records in this type of file are often deliited by special characters like tab and new lines chars. |
| Binaray | A file that may contain characters as well as other non-character data types that can't be read by a text editor. |
Two types of streams:
| Method | Description |
| Character | Used to transfer text data to or from an I/O device. |
| Binary | Used to transfer binary data to or from an I/O device. |
Descriptions:
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An input file is a file that is read by a program; an output file is a file that is written by a program. Input and output operations are often referred to as I/O operations or file I/O.
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A stream is the flow of data from one location to another. To write data to a file from internal storage, you use an output stream. To read from a file into internal storage, you use an input stream.
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To read and write text files, you use character streams. To read and write binary files, you use binary streams.
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Streams are not only used with disk devices, but also with input devices like keyboards and networks connections and output devices like PC monitors and network connections.
Example 1 : Import all classes in the java.io package
import java.io.*;
Example 2 : Create a File object
File productsFile = new File("products.txt");
Example 3 : Write data to the stream
PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter( new BufferedWriter( New FileWriter(productsFile))); out.println("java\tData"); out.close();
Example 4 : Read data to the stream
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader( new FileReader(productsFile)); String line = in.readLine(); out.close();