Java Buffered Reader, How to Reset Back to the Top Line

BufferedReader in Java : How To Read Text From Input Stream

Last updated on Jun 10,2021 27.5K Views

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Java provides several mechanisms in order to read from a file. One important class that helps in performing this operation is the BufferedReader. So, this article on BufferedReader in Java will help you in understanding Bufferedreader class along with examples. Following are the topics covered in this blog:

What is BufferedReader in Java?
BufferedReader Class Declaration
Java BufferedReader Constructors
Methods & Description
Difference Between Scanner and BufferReader
- BufferedReader in JDK7 Example
- Reading Data From Console By InputStreamReader and BufferedReader
- Reading Data From Console Until User Writes Stop

What is BufferedReader in Java?

BufferedReader is a Java class that reads text from the input stream. It buffers the characters so that it can get the efficient reading of characters, arrays, etc. It inherits the reader class and makes the code efficient since we can read the data line-by-line with the readline() method. There are a few pointers we have to keep in mind while working with BufferedReader class in Java.

We may have to specify the buffer size even though the default is large enough for any purpose.
With each request made of a reader a corresponding, a read request is also made of an underlying character.
It is always advised to wrap a BufferedReader class around any reader such as InputStreamReaders.
For the programs that use DataInputaStreams for textual input, an appropriate BufferedReader replaces the DataInputStream to localize it.

BufferedReader Class Declaration

public class BufferedReader extends Reader

Java BufferedReader Constructors

Constructor	Description
BufferedReader(Reader reader)	This constructor creates a buffering character-input stream that works on a default-size input buffer.
BufferedReader(Reader reader, int size)	It uses the specified size for the input buffer for buffering the character-input stream.

Methods And Description

Following are the methods with the description that we have for the Java BufferedReader class.

Method	Description
int read()	Reads a single character
String readLine()	It reads a line of text
void reset()	Repositions the stream to the position where the mark method was last called
int read(char[] cb, int off , int len)	Reads the characters in a portion of an array
boolean markSupported()	It tests the input stream support for reset and mark method
boolean ready()	It checks whether the input stream is ready for reading
long skip(long n)	skips the characters
void close()	It closes the input stream
void mark(int readAheadLimit)	Used to mark the current position in the stream

Example:

import java.io.*; public class Example{ public static void main(String args[] throws Exception) { FileReader f = new FileReader("filelocation"); BufferedReader b = new BufferedReader(f);  int i ; while((i = b.read()) != -1){ System.out.println((char) i); } b.close(); f.close();

Difference Between Scanner And BufferedReader

BufferedReader	Scanner
Synchronous and should be used with multiple threads	Not synchronous and not used with multiple threads
Buffer memory is larger	Buffer memory is smaller
Faster than Scanner	Slower because it does parsing of the input data
There is no ambiguity related to nextline() method	There are a lot of problems with the nextline() method.
Uses buffering to read characters from the character-input stream	It is a simple text scanner which parses primitive types and strings

BufferedReader in JDK7 Example

import java.io.*; public class Example{ public static void main(String[] args){ try( BufferedReader b = new BufferedReader(new fileReader("filename"))); { String s; while((s = b.readLine()) != null){ System.out.println(s); } } catch(IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } }

Reading Data From Console By InputStreamReader And BufferedReader in Java

import java.io.*; public class Example{ public static void main(String args[] throws Exception){ InputStreamReader i = new InputStreamReader(system.in); BufferedReader b = new BufferedReader(i); System.out.println("Enter Course"); String course = b.readLine(); System.out.pritln("Edureka" + course); } }

          Output:Enter Course        Java        Edureka Java

Reading Data From Console Until User Writes Stop

import java.io.*; public class Example{ public static void main(String args[] throws Exception){ InputStreamReader i = new InputStreamReader(system.in); BufferedReader b = new BufferedReader(i); string course = ""; while(!name.equals("stop")){ System.out.println("enter course:"); course = b.readLine(); System.out.println("Course is:" + course); } b.close(); i.close(); }  }

          Output:enter course:         Course is: Java         enter course:         Course is: stop

This brings us to the end of this article where we have learned how we can read characters from the character-input stream using the BufferedReader class in Java. Hope you are clear with all that has been shared with you in this tutorial.

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