Get an OutputStream into a String

Adrian_Mouat_4332 0
Viewed 691747

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!

io stream java string
6 Answers

I would use a ByteArrayOutputStream. And on finish you can call:

new String( baos.toByteArray(), codepage );

or better:

baos.toString( codepage );

For the String constructor, the codepage can be a String or an instance of java.nio.charset.Charset. A possible value is java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8.

The method toString() accepts only a String as a codepage parameter (stand Java 8).

Horcrux7_126310

I like the Apache Commons IO library. Take a look at its version of ByteArrayOutputStream, which has a toString(String enc) method as well as toByteArray(). Using existing and trusted components like the Commons project lets your code be smaller and easier to extend and repurpose.

Joe_Liversedge_45520

This worked nicely

OutputStream output = new OutputStream() {
    private StringBuilder string = new StringBuilder();

    @Override
    public void write(int b) throws IOException {
        this.string.append((char) b );
    }

    //Netbeans IDE automatically overrides this toString()
    public String toString() {
        return this.string.toString();
    }
};

method call =>> marshaller.marshal( (Object) toWrite , (OutputStream) output);

then to print the string or get it just reference the "output" stream itself As an example, to print the string out to console =>> System.out.println(output);

FYI: my method call marshaller.marshal(Object,Outputstream) is for working with XML. It is irrelevant to this topic.

This is highly wasteful for productional use, there is a way too many conversion and it is a bit loose. This was just coded to prove to you that it is totally possible to create a custom OuputStream and output a string. But just go Horcrux7 way and all is good with merely two method calls.

And the world lives on another day....

Admin1

Here's what I ended up doing:

Obj.writeToStream(toWrite, os);
try {
    String out = new String(os.toByteArray(), "UTF-8");
    assertTrue(out.contains("testString"));
} catch (UnsupportedEncondingException e) {
    fail("Caught exception: " + e.getMessage());
}

Where os is a ByteArrayOutputStream.

Adrian_Mouat_43320
user_14855270

Here's what I did (don't use this in production, this is not great! But it makes fixing multiple errors easier.)

  • Create a list that holds Exceptions.

  • Create a logger to log exceptions.

  • Use the code below:

    private static void exceptionChecker() throws Exception { if(exceptionList.isEmpty()) return; //nothing to do :) great news

      //create lock for multithreading
  synchronized (System.err){
      //create new error stream
      ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
      PrintStream errorOut = new PrintStream(byteArrayOutputStream);

      //save standard err  out
      PrintStream standardErrOut = System.err;

      try{
          //set new error stream
          System.setErr(errorOut);

          exceptionList.forEach(exception -> {
              exception.printStackTrace();
              System.err.println("<---------->");
          });


      } finally {
          //reset everything back to normal
          System.setErr(standardErrOut);

          //Log all the exceptions
          exceptionLogger.warning(byteArrayOutputStream.toString());

          //throw final generic exception
          throw new Exception();
      }
  }}

This isn't great as you are throwing an error in the finally block and it locks on the error stream, but it works for dev purposes.

user_143133380
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