io - Java I/O streams; what are the differences?

Question

java.io has many different I/O streams, (FileInputStream, FileOutputStream, FileReader, FileWriter, BufferedStreams... etc.) and I am confused in determining the differences between them. What are some examples where one stream type is preferred over another, and what are the real differences between them?

Answer 1

Streams: one byte at a time. Good for binary data.

Readers/Writers: one character at a time. Good for text data.

Anything "Buffered": many bytes/characters at a time. Good almost all the time.