Introduction

Files and sockets are accessed via streams in Java.A stream is a linear, sequential flow of bytes of input or output data.
Most of the classes in the java.io package can be classified as
- Byte streams that are subclasses of InputStream or OutputStream. They deal in 8-bit bytes.
- Character streams that are subclasses of Reader and Writer. They deal in 16-bit (Unicode) characters.
The InputStream and OutputStream are used for binary data. The Reader and Writer classes are used for text.
ObjectInputStream and ObjectOutputStream allow you to send a whole object.
Streams can be filtered. (e.g., a buffer).