Java 8 – Ways to convert an InputStream to String

I. Ways to convert an InputStream to a String

1. Using IOUtils

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;

		String result1 = IOUtils.toString(inputStream, "UTF-8");

2. Using CharStreams

import com.google.common.base.Charsets;
import com.google.common.io.CharStreams;

		String result2 = CharStreams.toString(new InputStreamReader(inputStream, Charsets.UTF_8));

3. Using Scanner

import java.util.Scanner;

		Scanner s = null;
		try {
			s = new Scanner(inputStream);
			s.useDelimiter("\\Z");

			String result3 = s.hasNext() ? s.next() : "";
		} finally {
			s.close();
		}

4. Using StringWriter

import java.io.StringWriter;

		StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
		IOUtils.copy(inputStream, writer, "UTF-8");
		String result4 = writer.toString();

5. Using ByteArrayOutputStream

import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;

		ByteArrayOutputStream bArrOutStrem = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
		byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
		int length;
		while ((length = inputStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
			bArrOutStrem.write(buffer, 0, length);
		}
		String result5 = bArrOutStrem.toString("UTF-8");

6. Using BufferedInputStream

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;

		BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(inputStream);
		ByteArrayOutputStream buf = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
		int ris = bis.read();
		while (ris != -1) {
			buf.write((byte) ris);
			ris = bis.read();
		}
		String result6 = buf.toString();

7. Using Java 8 Stream

The method: java.io.BufferedReader.lines() returns a Stream.

String result7 = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream)).lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));

II. Source code

This code is compiled successfully with Java 1.8.

package com.javasampleapproach.instream2string;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;

import com.google.common.base.Charsets;
import com.google.common.io.CharStreams;

public class MainApp {

	static String myString = "Java Sample Approach";

	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {

		// using IOUtils.toString
		InputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

		String result1 = IOUtils.toString(is, "UTF-8");
		System.out.println("using IOUtils.toString >> " + result1);

		// using CharStreams
		is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

		String result2 = CharStreams.toString(new InputStreamReader(is, Charsets.UTF_8));
		System.out.println("using CharStreams >> " + result2);

		// using Scanner
		is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

		Scanner s = null;
		try {
			s = new Scanner(is);
			s.useDelimiter("\\Z");
			String result3 = s.hasNext() ? s.next() : "";

			System.out.println("using Scanner >> " + result3);
		} finally {
			s.close();
		}

		// using StringWriter
		is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

		StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
		IOUtils.copy(is, writer, "UTF-8");
		String result4 = writer.toString();

		System.out.println("using StringWriter >> " + result4);

		// using ByteArrayOutputStream
		is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

		ByteArrayOutputStream bArrOutStrem = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
		byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
		int length;
		while ((length = is.read(buffer)) != -1) {
			bArrOutStrem.write(buffer, 0, length);
		}
		String result5 = bArrOutStrem.toString("UTF-8");

		System.out.println("using ByteArrayOutputStream >> " + result5);

		// using BufferedInputStream
		is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

		BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(is);
		ByteArrayOutputStream buf = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
		int ris = bis.read();
		while (ris != -1) {
			buf.write((byte) ris);
			ris = bis.read();
		}
		String result6 = buf.toString();

		System.out.println("using BufferedInputStream >> " + result6);

		// using Java 8 Stream
		is = new ByteArrayInputStream(myString.getBytes("UTF-8"));
		
		String result7 = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is)).lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));
		
		System.out.println("using Java 8 Stream >> " + result7);
	}
}

Run code above, the result in console window:

using IOUtils.toString >> Java Sample Approach
using CharStreams >> Java Sample Approach
using Scanner >> Java Sample Approach
using StringWriter >> Java Sample Approach
using ByteArrayOutputStream >> Java Sample Approach
using BufferedInputStream >> Java Sample Approach
using Java 8 Stream >> Java Sample Approach

Last updated on March 4, 2021.