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

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

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

or better

baos.toString( codepage );

Answer 2

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. Good luck.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

From what you describe I would suggest having a look at java.io.StringWriter. It collects in a StringBuffer which you can then convert to a String when you need it.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/io/StringWriter.html

Answer 5

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 higly wasteful for productional use, there are way to 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....

Answer 6

@Adrian :

More exactly 'os' is an ByteArrayOutputStream as OutputStream doesn't have a method toByteArray();

I don't know how to reply just under your response to Synox, so I just added an new answer.

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