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?
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.
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.
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);