Develop Reference

Is there an alternative to FileOutputStream type , which does not create a file?

To process some images in my android application I currently use code like this:
FileOutputStream fileOuputStream = new FileOutputStream(imgpath);
[..DO SOME STUFF..]
Bitmap data = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(bFile, 0, bFile.length, options);
data.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 90, fileOuputStream);
[..DO SOME STUFF..]
File file = new File(imgpath);
FileInputStream imageInFile = new FileInputStream(file);
byte imageData[] = new byte[(int) file.length()];
imageInFile.read(imageData);
[..DO SOME STUFF..]
file.delete();
//NOTE: The code is all in the same method
the problem is that passing my image from one part of the code to another using this method creates a temporary file.
I was looking for a way to read / write the file data using a memory variable, something like "generic stream" in which store data in order to replace use of "FileInputStream " and "FileOutputStream " and do not write temporary file.

If you are able to use an InputStream or OutputStream you can use ByteArrayInputStream or ByteArrayOutputStream for in memory handling of the data.
If you have two thread you can also use PipedInputStream and PipedOutputStream together to communicate between the threads.

You could write your data to a ByteArrayOutputStream and use the byte array of that stream:
ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
data.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 90, out);
// now take the bytes out of your Stream
byte[] imgData = out.toByteArray();

ObjectOutputStream.toByteArray returns garbage

I need to get the byte array out of everything I send to the output stream. But instead I get 4 bytes of rubbish. Why?
ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream objectOutputStream = new ObjectOutputStream(byteArrayOutputStream);
objectOutputStream.write(new byte[]{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9});
byte[] original = byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray();
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(original)); // why not [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]?

There are several flaws in your code. First of all you should use writeObject():
objectOutputStream.writeObject(new byte[]{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9});
then you should use symmetric ObjectInputStream for reading:
final ObjectInputStream objectInputStream = new ObjectInputStream(
new ByteArrayInputStream(
byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray()
)
);
byte[] original = (byte[]) objectInputStream.readObject();
However if you already have a byte[], there is no point in using Java serialization to convert it to byte array (which it already is!) Just write and read it directly:
ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byteArrayOutputStream.write(new byte[]{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9});
final ByteArrayInputStream byteArrayInputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(
byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray()
);
final byte[] original = new byte[9];
byteArrayInputStream.read(original);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(original));

An ObjectOutputStream is not a OutputStream and if it did the same thing there wouldn't be much point in having it.
An ObjectOutputStream is used for writing Objects, it has a header (which you can see) and footer (which you can't see unless you close the stream)

You didn't write anything into the objectOutputStream, but some meta information, that comes with the ObjectOutputStream.
For the purpose of your small example you can use the ByteArrayOutputStream. Then You need to write the data into the stream using byteArrayOutputStream.flush().
ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byteArrayOutputStream.write(new byte[]{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9});
byteArrayOutputStream.flush();
byte[] original = byteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray();
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(original));
And don't forget to close the stream when you are done!
byteArrayOutputStream.close();
ObjectOutputStreams are used to serialize Objects.
If you want to serialize Objects you should use ObjectOutputStream#writeObject and ObjectInputStream#readObject.
Example : http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/serialization/

How to create ByteArrayInputStream from a file in Java?

I have a file that can be any thing like ZIP, RAR, txt, CSV, doc etc. I would like to create a ByteArrayInputStream from it.
I'm using it to upload a file to FTP through FTPClient from Apache Commons Net.
Does anybody know how to do it?
For example:
String data = "hdfhdfhdfhd";
ByteArrayInputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream(data.getBytes());
My code:
public static ByteArrayInputStream retrieveByteArrayInputStream(File file) {
ByteArrayInputStream in;
return in;
}

Use the FileUtils#readFileToByteArray(File) from Apache Commons IO, and then create the ByteArrayInputStream using the ByteArrayInputStream(byte[]) constructor.
public static ByteArrayInputStream retrieveByteArrayInputStream(File file) {
return new ByteArrayInputStream(FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(file));
}

The general idea is that a File would yield a FileInputStream and a byte[] a ByteArrayInputStream. Both implement InputStream so they should be compatible with any method that uses InputStream as a parameter.
Putting all of the file contents in a ByteArrayInputStream can be done of course:
read in the full file into a byte[]; Java version >= 7 contains a convenience method called readAllBytes to read all data from a file;
create a ByteArrayInputStream around the file content, which is now in memory.
Note that this may not be optimal solution for very large files - all the file will stored in memory at the same point in time. Using the right stream for the job is important.

A ByteArrayInputStream is an InputStream wrapper around a byte array. This means you'll have to fully read the file into a byte[], and then use one of the ByteArrayInputStream constructors.
Can you give any more details of what you are doing with the ByteArrayInputStream? Its likely there are better ways around what you are trying to achieve.
Edit:
If you are using Apache FTPClient to upload, you just need an InputStream. You can do this;
String remote = "whatever";
InputStream is = new FileInputStream(new File("your file"));
ftpClient.storeFile(remote, is);
You should of course remember to close the input stream once you have finished with it.

This isn't exactly what you are asking, but is a fast way of reading files in bytes.
File file = new File(yourFileName);
RandomAccessFile ra = new RandomAccessFile(yourFileName, "rw"):
byte[] b = new byte[(int)file.length()];
try {
ra.read(b);
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
//Then iterate through b

This piece of code comes handy:
private static byte[] readContentIntoByteArray(File file)
{
FileInputStream fileInputStream = null;
byte[] bFile = new byte[(int) file.length()];
try
{
//convert file into array of bytes
fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(file);
fileInputStream.read(bFile);
fileInputStream.close();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return bFile;
}
Reference: http://howtodoinjava.com/2014/11/04/how-to-read-file-content-into-byte-array-in-java/

Sending big file using FileInputStream/ObjectOutputStream

I need help on my homework, any help will be much appreciated. I can send small files without a problem. But when i try to send let’s say a 1GB file byte array sends OutOfMemoryError so i need a better solution to send file from server to client. How can i improve this code and send big files, please help me.
Server Code:
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
byte[] fileByte = new byte[fis.available()]; //This causes the problem.
bytesRead = fis.read(fileByte);
oos = new ObjectOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream());
oos.writeObject(fileByte);
Client Code:
ois = new ObjectInputStream(sock.getInputStream());
byte[] file = (byte[]) ois.readObject();
fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
fos.write(file);

Don't read the whole file into memory, use a small buffer and write while you are reading the file:
BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream())
File file = new File("asd");
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(fis);
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024*1024*10];
int n = -1;
while((n = bis.read(buffer))!=-1) {
bos.write(buffer,0,n):
}
Use Buffered* to optimize the writing and reading from Streams

Just split the array to smaller chunks so that you don't need to allocate any big array.
For example you could split the array into 16Kb chunks, eg new byte[16384] and send them one by one. On the receiving side you would have to wait until a chunk can be fully read and then store them somewhere and start with next chunk.
But if you are not able to allocate a whole array of the size you need on server side you won't be able to store all the data that you are going to receive anyway.
You could also compress the data before sending it to save bandwidth (and time), take a look at ZipOutputStream and ZipInputStream.

Here's how I solved it:
Client Code:
bis=new BufferedInputStream(sock.getInputStream());
fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
int n;
byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
while ((n = bis.read(buffer)) > 0){
fos.write(buffer, 0, n);}
Server Code:
bos= new BufferedOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream());
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(fis);
int n=-1;
byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
while((n = bis.read(buffer))>-1)
bos.write(buffer,0,n);

Depending on whether or not you have to write the code yourself, there are existing libraries which solve this problem, e.g. rmiio. If you are not using RMI, just plain java serialization, you can use the DirectRemoteInputStream, which is kind of like a Serializable InputStream. (this library also has support for things like auto-magically compressing the data).
Actually, if you are only sending file data, you would be better off ditching the Object streams and use DataInput/DataOutput streams. first write an integer indicating the file length, then copy the bytes directly to the stream. on the receiving side, read the integer file length, then read exactly that many bytes.
when you copy the data between streams, use a small, fixed size byte[] to move chunks of data between the input and output streams in a loop. there are numerous examples of how to do this correctly available online (e.g. #ErikFWinter's answer).

Java servlet and IO: Create a file without saving to disk and sending it to the user

I`m hoping can help me out with a file creation/response question.
I know how to create and save a file. I know how to send that file back to the user via a ServletOutputStream.
But what I need is to create a file, without saving it on the disk, and then send that file via the ServletOutputStream.
The code above explains the parts that I have. Any help appreciated. Thanks in Advance.
// This Creates a file
//
String text = "These days run away like horses over the hill";
File file = new File("MyFile.txt");
Writer writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(file));
writer.write(text);
writer.close();
// Missing link goes here
//
// This sends file to browser
//
InputStream inputStream = null;
inputStream = new FileInputStream("C:\\MyFile.txt");
byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
int bytesRead;
while ( (bytesRead = inputStream.read(buffer)) != -1)
baos.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
response.setContentType("text/html");
response.addHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=Invoice.txt");
byte[] outBuf = baos.toByteArray();
stream = response.getOutputStream();
stream.write(outBuf);

You don't need to save off a file, just use a ByteArray stream, try something like this:
inputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(text.getBytes());
Or, even simpler, just do:
stream.write(text.getBytes());
As cHao suggests, use text.getBytes("UTF-8") or something similar to specify a charset other than the system default. The list of available charsets is available in the API docs for Charset.