OutputStream (Java 2 Platform SE 5.0) (original) (raw)

java.io

Class OutputStream

java.lang.Object extended by java.io.OutputStream

All Implemented Interfaces:

Closeable, Flushable

Direct Known Subclasses:

ByteArrayOutputStream, FileOutputStream, FilterOutputStream, ObjectOutputStream, OutputStream, PipedOutputStream

public abstract class OutputStream

extends Object

implements Closeable, Flushable

This abstract class is the superclass of all classes representing an output stream of bytes. An output stream accepts output bytes and sends them to some sink.

Applications that need to define a subclass of OutputStream must always provide at least a method that writes one byte of output.

Since:

JDK1.0

Constructor Summary
OutputStream()

Method Summary
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.
void	write(byte[] b) Writes b.length bytes from the specified byte array to this output stream.
void	[write](../../java/io/OutputStream.html#write%28byte[], int, int%29)(byte[] b, int off, int len) Writes len bytes from the specified byte array starting at offset off to this output stream.
abstract void	write(int b) Writes the specified byte to this output stream.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, [wait](../../java/lang/Object.html#wait%28long, int%29)

Constructor Detail

OutputStream

public OutputStream()

Method Detail

write

public abstract void write(int b) throws IOException

Writes the specified byte to this output stream. The general contract for write is that one byte is written to the output stream. The byte to be written is the eight low-order bits of the argument b. The 24 high-order bits of b are ignored.

Subclasses of OutputStream must provide an implementation for this method.

Parameters:

b - the byte.

Throws:

[IOException](../../java/io/IOException.html "class in java.io") - if an I/O error occurs. In particular, an IOException may be thrown if the output stream has been closed.

write

public void write(byte[] b) throws IOException

Writes b.length bytes from the specified byte array to this output stream. The general contract for write(b) is that it should have exactly the same effect as the call write(b, 0, b.length).

Parameters:

b - the data.

Throws:

[IOException](../../java/io/IOException.html "class in java.io") - if an I/O error occurs.

See Also:

[write(byte[], int, int)](../../java/io/OutputStream.html#write%28byte[], int, int%29)

write

public void write(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException

Writes len bytes from the specified byte array starting at offset off to this output stream. The general contract for write(b, off, len) is that some of the bytes in the array b are written to the output stream in order; element b[off] is the first byte written and b[off+len-1] is the last byte written by this operation.

The write method of OutputStream calls the write method of one argument on each of the bytes to be written out. Subclasses are encouraged to override this method and provide a more efficient implementation.

If b is null, a NullPointerException is thrown.

If off is negative, or len is negative, or off+len is greater than the length of the array b, then an IndexOutOfBoundsException is thrown.

Parameters:

b - the data.

off - the start offset in the data.

len - the number of bytes to write.

Throws:

[IOException](../../java/io/IOException.html "class in java.io") - if an I/O error occurs. In particular, an IOException is thrown if the output stream is closed.

flush

public void flush() throws IOException

Flushes this output stream and forces any buffered output bytes to be written out. The general contract of flush is that calling it is an indication that, if any bytes previously written have been buffered by the implementation of the output stream, such bytes should immediately be written to their intended destination.

If the intended destination of this stream is an abstraction provided by the underlying operating system, for example a file, then flushing the stream guarantees only that bytes previously written to the stream are passed to the operating system for writing; it does not guarantee that they are actually written to a physical device such as a disk drive.

The flush method of OutputStream does nothing.

Specified by:

[flush](../../java/io/Flushable.html#flush%28%29) in interface [Flushable](../../java/io/Flushable.html "interface in java.io")

Throws:

[IOException](../../java/io/IOException.html "class in java.io") - if an I/O error occurs.

close

public void close() throws IOException

Closes this output stream and releases any system resources associated with this stream. The general contract of close is that it closes the output stream. A closed stream cannot perform output operations and cannot be reopened.

The close method of OutputStream does nothing.

Specified by:

[close](../../java/io/Closeable.html#close%28%29) in interface [Closeable](../../java/io/Closeable.html "interface in java.io")

Throws:

[IOException](../../java/io/IOException.html "class in java.io") - if an I/O error occurs.

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.