Java: Byte Streams

Programs use byte streams to perform input and output of 8-bit bytes. All byte stream classes are descended from InputStream and OutputStream.

There are many byte stream classes. Ex: AudioInputStream, ByteArrayInputStream, FilterInputStream, ObjectInputStream, PipedInputStream, SequenceInputStream, StringBufferInputStream

Using file byte streams:

FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream("xanadu.txt");
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("outagain.txt");


FileInputStream: Constructor summary..

FileInputStream(File file) Creates a FileInputStream by opening a connection to an actual file, the file named by the File object file in the file system.

FileInputStream(FileDescriptor fdObj) Creates a FileInputStream by using the file descriptor fdObj, which represents an existing connection to an actual file in the file system.

FileInputStream(String name) Creates a FileInputStream by opening a connection to an actual file, the file named by the path name name in the file system.

FileInputStream: Methods summary..

int	available() Returns an estimate of the number of remaining bytes that can be read (or skipped over) from this input stream without blocking by the next invocation of a method for this input stream.
void	close() Closes this file input stream and releases any system resources associated with the stream.
protected void	finalize() Ensures that the close method of this file input stream is called when there are no more references to it.
FileChannel	getChannel() Returns the unique FileChannel object associated with this file input stream.
FileDescriptor	getFD() Returns the FileDescriptor object that represents the connection to the actual file in the file system being used by this FileInputStream.
int	read() Reads a byte of data from this input stream.
int	read(byte[] b) Reads up to b.length bytes of data from this input stream into an array of bytes.
int	read(byte[] b, int off, int len) Reads up to len bytes of data from this input stream into an array of bytes.
long	skip(long n) Skips over and discards n bytes of data from the input stream.

FileOutputStream: Constructor summary..

FileOutputStream(File file) Creates a file output stream to write to the file represented by the specified File object.

FileOutputStream(File file, boolean append) Creates a file output stream to write to the file represented by the specified File object.

FileOutputStream(FileDescriptor fdObj) Creates an output file stream to write to the specified file descriptor, which represents an existing connection to an actual file in the file system.

FileOutputStream(String name) Creates an output file stream to write to the file with the specified name.

FileOutputStream(String name, boolean append) Creates an output file stream to write to the file with the specified name.

FileOutputStream: Methods summary.. 

void	close() Closes this file output stream and releases any system resources associated with this stream.
protected void	finalize() Cleans up the connection to the file, and ensures that the close method of this file output stream is called when there are no more references to this stream.
FileChannel	getChannel() Returns the unique FileChannel object associated with this file output stream.
FileDescriptor	getFD() Returns the file descriptor associated with this stream.
void	write(byte[] b) Writes b.length bytes from the specified byte array to this file output stream.
void	write(byte[] b, int off, int len) Writes len bytes from the specified byte array starting at offset off to this file output stream.
void	write(int b) Writes the specified byte to this file output stream.

Source:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/io/bytestreams.html