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| Chapter 11 The java.io Package |

# InputStreamReader

## Name

InputStreamReader

## Synopsis

Class Name:

  `java.io.InputStreamReader`

Superclass:

  `java.io.Reader`

Immediate Subclasses:

  `java.io.FileReader`

Interfaces Implemented:

  None

Availability:

  New as of JDK 1.1

## Description

The `InputStreamReader` class is a bridge between the byte-oriented world of the `InputStream` class and the character-oriented world of the `Reader` class. The `InputStreamReader` represents a character stream, but it gets its input from an underlying byte stream. An encoding scheme is responsible for translating the bytes to Unicode characters. An `InputStreamReader` can be created using an explicit encoding scheme or a default encoding scheme.

For example, to read an ISO-8859-5 byte stream as a Unicode character stream, you can construct an `InputStreamReader` with the encoding "8859_5" as follows:

    InputStreamReader inr = new InputStreamReader(in, "8859_5");

Each time you read from an `InputStreamReader` object, bytes may be read from the underlying byte stream. To improve efficiency, you may want to wrap the `InputStreamReader` in a `BufferedReader`.

## Class Summary

    public class java.io.InputStreamReader extends java.io.Reader {
      // Constructors
      public InputStreamReader(InputStream in);
      public InputStreamReader(InputStream in, String enc);
      // Instance Methods
      public void close();
      public String getEncoding();
      public int read();
      public int read(char[] cbuf, int off, int len);
      public boolean ready();
    }

## Constructors

### InputStreamReader

#### public InputStreamReader(InputStream in)

Parameters

  `in`

    The input stream to use.

Description

  This constructor creates an `InputStreamReader` that gets its data from `in` and translates bytes to characters using the system's default encoding scheme.

####

     public InputStreamReader(InputStream in, String enc) throws UnsupportedEncodingException

Parameters

  `in`

    The input stream to use.

  `enc`

    The name of an encoding scheme.

Throws

  `UnsupportedEncodingException`

    If `enc` is not a supported encoding scheme.

Description

  This constructor creates an `InputStreamReader` that gets its data from `in` and translates bytes to characters using the given encoding scheme.

## Instance Methods

### close

#### public void close() throws IOException

Throws

  `IOException`

    If any kind of I/O error occurs.

Overrides

  `Reader.close()`

Description

  This method calls the `close()` method of the underlying input stream, which releases any system resources associated with this object.

### getEncoding

#### public String getEncoding()

Returns

  A `String` that contains the name of the character encoding scheme of this reader.

Description

  This method returns the name of the character encoding scheme this `InputStreamReader` is currently using.

### read

#### public int read() throws IOException

Returns

  The next character of data or `-1` if the end of the stream is encountered.

Throws

  `IOException`

    If any kind of I/O error occurs.

Overrides

  `Reader.read()`

Description

  This method reads a character of input. The method returns the next character that has been read and converted from the underlying byte-oriented `InputStream`. The `InputStreamReader` class uses buffering internally, so this method returns immediately unless the buffer is empty. If the buffer is empty, a new block of bytes is read from the `InputStream` and converted to characters. The method blocks until the character is read, the end of stream is encountered, or an exception is thrown.

#### public int read(char[] cbuf, int off, int len) throws IOException

Parameters

  `cbuf`

    An array of characters to be filled from the stream.

  `off`

    An offset into the array.

  `len`

    The number of characters to read.

Returns

  The actual number of characters read or `-1` if the end of the stream is encountered immediately.

Throws

  `IOException`

    If any kind of I/O error occurs.

Overrides

  `Reader.read(char[], int, int)`

Description

  This method reads up to `len` characters of input into the given array starting at index `off`. The `InputStreamReader` class uses buffering internally, so this method returns immediately if there is enough data in the buffer. If there is not enough data, a new block of bytes is read from the `InputStream` and converted to characters. The method blocks until some data is available.

### ready

#### public boolean ready() throws IOException

Returns

  `true` if the reader is ready to be read; `false` otherwise.

Throws

  `IOException`

    If the reader is closed or any other kind of I/O error occurs.

Overrides

  `Reader.ready()`

Description

  This method returns a `boolean` value that indicates whether or not the reader is ready to be read. If there is data available in the internal buffer or if there are bytes available to be read from the underlying byte stream, the method returns `true`. Otherwise it returns `false`.

## Inherited Methods

Method | Inherited From | Method | Inherited From
--- | --- | --- | ---
`clone()` | `Object` | `equals(Object)` | `Object`
`finalize()` | `Object` | `getClass()` | `Object`
`hashCode()` | `Object` | `notify()` | `Object`
`notifyAll()` | `Object` | `mark()` | `Reader`
`markSupported()` | `Reader` | `read(char[])` | `Reader`
`reset()` | `Reader` | `skip(long)` | `Reader`
`toString()` | `Object` | `wait()` | `Object`
`wait(long)` | `Object` | `wait(long, int)` | `Object`

## See Also

`BufferedReader`, `FileReader`, `InputStream`, `IOException`, , `Reader`, `UnsupportedEncodingException`

InputStream |  | InterruptedIOException