Interface Buffer

  • All Known Implementing Classes:
    ArrayBuffer, ArrayBuffer.Segment, BufferAllocator, FileBuffer, FileBuffer.Segment

    public interface Buffer
    The Buffer interface represents a collection of bytes that can be written to and later read. This is used to provide a region of memory is such a way that the underlying representation of that memory is independent of its use. Typically buffers are implemented as either allocated byte arrays or files.
    See Also:
    Allocator
    • Method Summary

      All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods 
      Modifier and Type Method Description
      Buffer allocate()
      This method is used to allocate a segment of this buffer as a separate buffer object.
      Buffer append​(byte[] array)
      This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer.
      Buffer append​(byte[] array, int off, int len)
      This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer.
      void clear()
      This will clear all data from the buffer.
      void close()
      This method is used to ensure the buffer can be closed.
      java.lang.String encode()
      This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string.
      java.lang.String encode​(java.lang.String charset)
      This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string.
      long length()
      This is used to provide the number of bytes that have been written to the buffer.
      java.io.InputStream open()
      This method is used so that a buffer can be represented as a stream of bytes.
    • Method Detail

      • allocate

        Buffer allocate()
                 throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used to allocate a segment of this buffer as a separate buffer object. This allows the buffer to be sliced in to several smaller independent buffers, while still allowing the parent buffer to manage a single buffer. This is useful if the parent is split in to logically smaller segments.
        Returns:
        this returns a buffer which is a segment of this buffer
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • open

        java.io.InputStream open()
                          throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used so that a buffer can be represented as a stream of bytes. This provides a quick means to access the data that has been written to the buffer. It wraps the buffer within an input stream so that it can be read directly.
        Returns:
        a stream that can be used to read the buffered bytes
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • encode

        java.lang.String encode()
                         throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string. This is useful if the contents need to be manipulated as a string or transferred into another encoding. If the UTF-8 content encoding is not supported the platform default is used, however this is unlikely as UTF-8 should be supported.
        Returns:
        this returns a UTF-8 encoding of the buffer contents
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • encode

        java.lang.String encode​(java.lang.String charset)
                         throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string. This is useful if the contents need to be manipulated as a string or transferred into another encoding. This will convert the bytes using the specified character encoding format.
        Parameters:
        charset - this is the charset to encode the data with
        Returns:
        this returns the encoding of the buffer contents
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • append

        Buffer append​(byte[] array)
               throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer. This will expand the capacity of the buffer if there is not enough space to accommodate the extra bytes.
        Parameters:
        array - this is the byte array to append to this buffer
        Returns:
        this returns this buffer for another operation
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • append

        Buffer append​(byte[] array,
                      int off,
                      int len)
               throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer. This will expand the capacity of the buffer if there is not enough space to accommodate the extra bytes.
        Parameters:
        array - this is the byte array to append to this buffer
        len - the number of bytes to be read from the array
        off - this is the offset to begin reading the bytes from
        Returns:
        this returns this buffer for another operation
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • clear

        void clear()
            throws java.io.IOException
        This will clear all data from the buffer. This simply sets the count to be zero, it will not clear the memory occupied by the instance as the internal buffer will remain. This allows the memory occupied to be reused as many times as is required.
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • close

        void close()
            throws java.io.IOException
        This method is used to ensure the buffer can be closed. Once the buffer is closed it is an immutable collection of bytes and can not longer be modified. This ensures that it can be passed by value without the risk of modification of the bytes.
        Throws:
        java.io.IOException
      • length

        long length()
        This is used to provide the number of bytes that have been written to the buffer. This increases as bytes are appended to the buffer. if the buffer is cleared this resets to zero.
        Returns:
        this returns the number of bytes within the buffer