Java - Socket getInputStream() Method

Description

The Java Socket getInputStream() returns an input stream for this socket. If this socket has an associated channel then the resulting input stream delegates all of its operations to the channel. If the channel is in non-blocking mode then the input stream's read operations will throw an IllegalBlockingModeException.

Under abnormal conditions the underlying connection may be broken by the remote host or the network software (for example a connection reset in the case of TCP connections). When a broken connection is detected by the network software the following applies to the returned input stream −

• The network software may discard bytes that are buffered by the socket. Bytes that aren't discarded by the network software can be read using read.

• If there are no bytes buffered on the socket, or all buffered bytes have been consumed by read, then all subsequent calls to read will throw an IOException.

• If there are no bytes buffered on the socket, and the socket has not been closed using close, then available will return 0.

Closing the returned InputStream will close the associated socket.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.net.Socket.getInputStream() method.

public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException

Parameters

NA

Return Value

an input stream for reading bytes from this socket.

Exception

IOException − if an I/O error occurs when creating the input stream, the socket is closed, the socket is not connected, or the socket input has been shutdown using shutdownInput()

Example

The following example shows the usage of Java Socket getInputStream() methd to get an input stream from a server using socket. As first step, we've created a GreetingClient class where we're reading the servername and port using command line argument. A Socket instance is created as client using servername and port provided. Using client.getInputStream(), we're reading the content sent by the server. InputStream instance is then cast to DataInputStream and then printed using DataInputStream.readUTF() method.

The following GreetingClient program is an example of a client application that uses the Socket class to listen for server output on a port number specified by a command-line argument −

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.Socket;

public class GreetingClient {

   public static void main(String [] args) {
      String serverName = args[0];
      int port = Integer.parseInt(args[1]);
      try {
         System.out.println("Connecting to " + serverName + " on port " + port);
         Socket client = new Socket(serverName, port);
         
         System.out.println("Just connected to " + client.getRemoteSocketAddress());
         OutputStream outToServer = client.getOutputStream();
         DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(outToServer);
         
         out.writeUTF("Hello from " + client.getLocalSocketAddress());
         InputStream inFromServer = client.getInputStream();
         DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(inFromServer);
         
         System.out.println("Server says " + in.readUTF());
         client.close();
      } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

The following GreetingServer program is an example of a server application that uses the Socket class to listen for clients on a port number specified by a command-line argument −

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.SocketTimeoutException;

public class GreetingServer extends Thread {
   private ServerSocket serverSocket;
   
   public GreetingServer(int port) throws IOException {
      serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
      serverSocket.setSoTimeout(10000);
   }

   public void run() {
      while(true) {
         try {
            System.out.println("Waiting for client on port " + 
               serverSocket.getLocalPort() + "...");
            Socket server = serverSocket.accept();
            
            System.out.println("Just connected to " + server.getRemoteSocketAddress());
            DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(server.getInputStream());
            
            System.out.println(in.readUTF());
            DataOutputStream out = new DataOutputStream(server.getOutputStream());
            out.writeUTF("Thank you for connecting to " + server.getLocalSocketAddress()
               + "\nGoodbye!");
            server.close();
            
         } catch (SocketTimeoutException s) {
            System.out.println("Socket timed out!");
            break;
         } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            break;
         }
      }
   }
   
   public static void main(String [] args) {
      int port = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
      try {
         Thread t = new GreetingServer(port);
         t.start();
      } catch (IOException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Compile the client and the server and then start the server as follows −

$ java GreetingServer 6066
Waiting for client on port 6066...
Just connected to /127.0.0.1:49462
Hello from /127.0.0.1:49462
Waiting for client on port 6066...

Check the client program as follows −

Output

$ java GreetingClient localhost 6066
Connecting to localhost on port 6066
Just connected to localhost/127.0.0.1:6066
Server says Thank you for connecting to /127.0.0.1:6066
Goodbye!