Character Streams

Character streams in Java are used for handling input and output of character data, making them suitable for text-based operations where character encoding matters. Unlike byte streams, which deal with raw binary data, character streams handle characters and automatically handle character encoding and decoding. Let's explore character streams with an example:

Example: Reading and Writing Text Files Using Character Streams

In this example, we'll create a program that reads the contents of a text file using a `FileReader` and writes them into another text file using a `FileWriter`.

import java.io.*;

public class CharacterStreamExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        String sourceFile = "source.txt";

        String destinationFile = "destination.txt";

        try (FileReader reader = new FileReader(sourceFile);

             FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(destinationFile)) {

            int character;

            while ((character = reader.read()) != -1) {

                writer.write(character);

            }

            System.out.println("File copied successfully!");

        } catch (IOException e) {

            e.printStackTrace();

        }

    }

}

Explanation:

- We import the necessary classes from the `java.io` package for character input and output operations.

- Inside the `main` method, we specify the source and destination file names.

- We create a `FileReader` to read characters from the source file and a `FileWriter` to write characters to the destination file. Again, we use try-with-resources to ensure proper resource management.

- We use a `while` loop to read characters from the source file (`reader.read()`) and write them to the destination file (`writer.write()`). The loop continues until the `read` method returns `-1`, indicating the end of the file.

- If any `IOException` occurs during file operations, we catch and print the exception stack trace.

Execution:

1. Ensure that the source file (`source.txt`) exists and contains some text.

2. Run the `CharacterStreamExample` class.

3. Check the destination file (`destination.txt`) to verify that the contents have been copied successfully.

This example demonstrates how to use character streams to perform text file operations. Character streams handle character encoding automatically, making them suitable for processing text data. They are particularly useful when dealing with files containing text in different character encodings.