Get an OutputStream into a String?

Question

What's the best way to pipe the output from an java.io.OutputStream to a String in Java? Say I have the method: writeToStream(Object o, OutputStream out) Which writes certain data from the object to the given stream. However, I want to get this output into a String as easily as possible. I'm considering writing a class like this (untested): class StringOutputStream extends OutputStream { StringBuilder mBuf; public void write(int byte) throws IOException { mBuf.append((char) byte); } public String getString() { return mBuf.toString(); } } But is there a better way? I only want to run a test!

Answer 1

HI,

This sounds like a good candidate for StringBuffer, basically, the string buffer add allows you to add data to it efficiently and then at the end of your stream you can convert from StringBuffer to String. StringBuffer guarantees synchronizations I believe where as a similar class StringBuilder does not. Check the java docs for the specs of these two built in classes.