Java sockets: DataOutputStream or OutputStream?

Question

I'm still relatively new to sockets, and I haven't seen any information regarding this subject.

To write to a connected socket, you can either use

socket.getOutputStream().write

Or create a new DataOutputStream from the socket OutputStream and write to that.

What is considered "good practice", using a DataOutputStream or OutputStream? Most of the examples I find on the internet use DataOutputStream (to send Strings, such as in a two way chat).
Are there any advantages or disadvantages from using DataOutputStream over OutputStream?
Is there any difference in performance that is noticeable between these two when, for example, sending files?

Jérôme Verstrynge · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-24 17:48:34Z

12

DataOutputStream makes sure the data is formatted in a platform independent way. This is the big benefit. It makes sure the party on the other side will be able to read it. There is no significant performance difference between both.

You should use OutputStream only if you transfer raw binary data.

edited Jul 24, 2012 at 17:48

answered Aug 8, 2011 at 15:05

Jérôme Verstrynge

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3 Comments

David Over a year ago

So what would you suggest if you want to create a platform-independent java application that can send files?

Jérôme Verstrynge Over a year ago

Even if the files only contain raw bytes, you can still send them with DataOutputStream, so I would go for DataOuputStream in all cases.

user207421 Over a year ago

DataOutputStream only 'makes sure the data is formatted in a platform-independent way` if you use the extra APIs it provides. Its write() methods do not have magical properties. If you're only using those, (a) there is no performance difference at all, and (b) there is no point in using DataOutputStream at all. If you're using the extra APIs there is nothing to compare its performance with. So the statement about performance differences is basically meaningless.

user207421 · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-24 00:15:30Z

2

Use DataOutputStream if you need the extra APIs. If you don't, there is no point. But you should always wrap the socket's output stream in a BufferedOutputStream if you are doing small writes, and flush() when appropriate, i.e. before you read the socket for example.

edited Feb 24, 2017 at 0:15

answered Aug 9, 2011 at 0:13

user207421

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Comments

FaisalC · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-20 13:19:21Z

-1

Just now I came to know a difference between dataoutputstream and outputstreamwriter while working with a SOAP services... I tried to pass arabic data through request XML but in the response XML I'm getting some junk characters in place of arabic data then I tried to encode (UTF-8) the request but there is no such method to encode in DataOutputStream where as you can encode the request in OutputStreamWriter before sending the request. OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(con.getOutputStream(), "UTF-8"); out.write(inputXML);

answered Dec 20, 2017 at 13:19

FaisalC

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