Byte Streams and Character Streams
Modern versions of Java define two types of streams: byte and character. (The original version of Java defined only the byte stream, but character streams were quickly added.) Byte streams provide a convenient means for handling input and output of bytes. They are used, for example, when reading or writing binary data. They are especially helpful when working with files. Character streams are designed for handling the input and output of characters. They use Unicode and, therefore, can be internationalized. Also, in some cases, character streams are more efficient than byte streams.
The fact that Java defines two different types of streams makes the I/O system quite large because two separate sets of class hierarchies ...
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