How do I convert a java.io.File to a byte[]?
27 Answers
It depends on what best means for you. Productivity wise, don't reinvent the wheel and use Apache Commons. Which is here FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(File input).
Basically you have to read it in memory. Open the file, allocate the array, and read the contents from the file into the array.
The simplest way is something similar to this:
public byte[] read(File file) throws IOException, FileTooBigException {
if (file.length() > MAX_FILE_SIZE) {
throw new FileTooBigException(file);
}
ByteArrayOutputStream ous = null;
InputStream ios = null;
try {
byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
ous = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ios = new FileInputStream(file);
int read = 0;
while ((read = ios.read(buffer)) != -1) {
ous.write(buffer, 0, read);
}
}finally {
try {
if (ous != null)
ous.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
}
try {
if (ios != null)
ios.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
}
}
return ous.toByteArray();
}
This has some unnecessary copying of the file content (actually the data is copied three times: from file to buffer, from buffer to ByteArrayOutputStream, from ByteArrayOutputStream to the actual resulting array).
You also need to make sure you read in memory only files up to a certain size (this is usually application dependent) :-).
You also need to treat the IOException outside the function.
Another way is this:
public byte[] read(File file) throws IOException, FileTooBigException {
if (file.length() > MAX_FILE_SIZE) {
throw new FileTooBigException(file);
}
byte[] buffer = new byte[(int) file.length()];
InputStream ios = null;
try {
ios = new FileInputStream(file);
if (ios.read(buffer) == -1) {
throw new IOException(
"EOF reached while trying to read the whole file");
}
} finally {
try {
if (ios != null)
ios.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
}
}
return buffer;
}
This has no unnecessary copying.
FileTooBigException is a custom application exception.
The MAX_FILE_SIZE constant is an application parameters.
For big files you should probably think a stream processing algorithm or use memory mapping (see java.nio).
As someone said, Apache Commons File Utils might have what you are looking for
public static byte[] readFileToByteArray(File file) throws IOException
Example use (Program.java):
import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
public class Program {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
File file = new File(args[0]); // assume args[0] is the path to file
byte[] data = FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(file);
...
}
}
You can use the NIO api as well to do it. I could do this with this code as long as the total file size (in bytes) would fit in an int.
File f = new File("c:\\wscp.script");
FileInputStream fin = null;
FileChannel ch = null;
try {
fin = new FileInputStream(f);
ch = fin.getChannel();
int size = (int) ch.size();
MappedByteBuffer buf = ch.map(MapMode.READ_ONLY, 0, size);
byte[] bytes = new byte[size];
buf.get(bytes);
} catch (IOException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
if (fin != null) {
fin.close();
}
if (ch != null) {
ch.close();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
I think its very fast since its using MappedByteBuffer.
// Returns the contents of the file in a byte array.
public static byte[] getBytesFromFile(File file) throws IOException {
// Get the size of the file
long length = file.length();
// You cannot create an array using a long type.
// It needs to be an int type.
// Before converting to an int type, check
// to ensure that file is not larger than Integer.MAX_VALUE.
if (length > Integer.MAX_VALUE) {
// File is too large
throw new IOException("File is too large!");
}
// Create the byte array to hold the data
byte[] bytes = new byte[(int)length];
// Read in the bytes
int offset = 0;
int numRead = 0;
InputStream is = new FileInputStream(file);
try {
while (offset < bytes.length
&& (numRead=is.read(bytes, offset, bytes.length-offset)) >= 0) {
offset += numRead;
}
} finally {
is.close();
}
// Ensure all the bytes have been read in
if (offset < bytes.length) {
throw new IOException("Could not completely read file "+file.getName());
}
return bytes;
}
This is one of the simplest way
String pathFile = "/path/to/file";
byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(pathFile ));
Let me add another solution without using third-party libraries. It re-uses an exception handling pattern that was proposed by Scott (link). And I moved the ugly part into a separate message (I would hide in some FileUtils class ;) )
public void someMethod() {
final byte[] buffer = read(new File("test.txt"));
}
private byte[] read(final File file) {
if (file.isDirectory())
throw new RuntimeException("Unsupported operation, file "
+ file.getAbsolutePath() + " is a directory");
if (file.length() > Integer.MAX_VALUE)
throw new RuntimeException("Unsupported operation, file "
+ file.getAbsolutePath() + " is too big");
Throwable pending = null;
FileInputStream in = null;
final byte buffer[] = new byte[(int) file.length()];
try {
in = new FileInputStream(file);
in.read(buffer);
} catch (Exception e) {
pending = new RuntimeException("Exception occured on reading file "
+ file.getAbsolutePath(), e);
} finally {
if (in != null) {
try {
in.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
if (pending == null) {
pending = new RuntimeException(
"Exception occured on closing file"
+ file.getAbsolutePath(), e);
}
}
}
if (pending != null) {
throw new RuntimeException(pending);
}
}
return buffer;
}//The file that you wanna convert into byte[]
File file=new File("/storage/0CE2-EA3D/DCIM/Camera/VID_20190822_205931.mp4");
FileInputStream fileInputStream=new FileInputStream(file);
byte[] data=new byte[(int) file.length()];
BufferedInputStream bufferedInputStream=new BufferedInputStream(fileInputStream);
bufferedInputStream.read(data,0,data.length);
//Now the bytes of the file are contain in the "byte[] data"
Try this :
import sun.misc.IOUtils;
import java.io.IOException;
try {
String path="";
InputStream inputStream=new FileInputStream(path);
byte[] data=IOUtils.readFully(inputStream,-1,false);
}
catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
Can be done as simple as this (Kotlin version)
val byteArray = File(path).inputStream().readBytes()
EDIT:
I've read docs of readBytes method. It says:
Reads this stream completely into a byte array. Note: It is the caller's responsibility to close this stream.
So to be able to close the stream, while keeping everything clean, use the following code:
val byteArray = File(path).inputStream().use { it.readBytes() }
Thanks to @user2768856 for pointing this out.
try this if you have target version less than 26 API
private static byte[] readFileToBytes(String filePath) {
File file = new File(filePath);
byte[] bytes = new byte[(int) file.length()];
// funny, if can use Java 7, please uses Files.readAllBytes(path)
try(FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file)){
fis.read(bytes);
return bytes;
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
In JDK8
Stream<String> lines = Files.lines(path);
String data = lines.collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));
lines.close();
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