This class is a subclass of InputStream that reads bytes from a file specified by name or by a File or FileDescriptor object. read( ) reads a byte or array of bytes from the file. It returns -1 when the end-of-file has been reached. To read binary data, you typically use this class in conjunction with a BufferedInputStream and DataInputStream. To read text, you typically use it with an InputStreamReader and BufferedReader. Call close( ) to close the file when input is no longer needed.

In Java 1.4 and later, use getChannel( ) to obtain a FileChannel object for reading from the underlying file using the New I/O API of java.nio and its subpackages.

Figure 9-15. java.io.FileInputStream

public class FileInputStream extends InputStream {
// Public Constructors
     public FileInputStream(String name) throws FileNotFoundException;  
     public FileInputStream(File file) throws FileNotFoundException;  
     public FileInputStream(FileDescriptor fdObj);  
// Public Instance Methods
1.4  public java.nio.channels.FileChannel getChannel( );  
     public final FileDescriptor getFD( ) throws IOException;  
// Public Methods Overriding InputStream
     public int available( ) throws IOException;                          native
     public void close( ) throws IOException;  
     public int read( ) throws IOException;                               native
     public int read(byte[ ] b) throws IOException;  
     public int read(byte[ ] b, int off, int len) throws IOException;  
     public long skip(long n) throws IOException;                       native
// Protected Methods Overriding Object
     protected void finalize( ) throws IOException;  
}