SequenceInputStream in Java | Methods, Example

SequenceInputStream in Java is a single input stream (file) that is a combination of two or more input streams (files) together in a particular order.

It reads data from two or more input streams sequentially, one after the other.

Java SequenceInputStream begins to read data from a particular order of input streams.

It first reads data (in bytes) from the first stream in the sequence, then all the data from the second stream in sequence, then all the data from the third stream, and so on.

When the end of one stream (file) is reached, that file is closed; the next data comes from the next input stream (file). This process continues until the ​end of the file is reached on the last of the contained input streams.

Thus, the connection of two or more files into a single file is called concatenation of files and can be achieved by SequenceInputStream class in Java.

Java SequenceInputStream Class declaration

SequenceInputStream class extends InputStream class and implements Closeable, and AutoCloseable interfaces. The general declaration of sequence input stream class in Java is given below:

public class SequenceInputStream
   extends InputStream
   implements Closeable, AutoCloseable

SequenceInputStream class was added in Java 1.0 version. It is present in java.io.SequenceInputStream package.

Constructor of SequenceInputStream class in Java

SequenceInputStream class defines two constructors that are different from any other InputStream. They are as follows:

1. SequenceInputStream​(InputStream s1, InputStream s2): This constructor creates a new SequenceInputStream object that takes two InputStream objects as arguments and combines them to create a single input stream. It reads data (in bytes) in order, first s1 and then s2.

For example, to read data from both file1 and file2, we might do this:

FileInputStream file1 = new FileInputStream("text1.txt");
FileInputStream file2 = new FileInputStream("text2.txt");

// Concatenate file1 and file2 into file3.
   SequenceInputStream file3 = new SequenceInputStream(file1, file2);

[adinserter block=”5″]
Look at the figure below to understand better.

2. SequenceInputStream​(Enumeration e): This constructor creates a new SequenceInputStream that takes an Enumeration of InputStreams as an argument. It reads the data of an enumeration whose type is InputStream.

SequenceInputStream Methods in Java

In addition to methods inherited from InputStreamclass, SequenceInputStream class also defines some useful methods in Java. They are as follows:

All of these methods will throw an exception named IOException if any error occurs.

SequenceInputStream Example Programs

1. Let’s create a program to take data of two files file1 and file2 and display that data on the console. Look at the following source code.
[adinserter block=”2″]
Program code 1:

package javaProgram;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.SequenceInputStream;
public class SequenceInputStreamEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
  FileInputStream file1 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file1.txt");    
  FileInputStream file2 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file2.txt");  

// Concatenate file1 and file2 into file3.
   SequenceInputStream file3 = new SequenceInputStream(file1, file2);    
   int i;    
   while((i = file3.read()) != -1) {    
      System.out.print((char)i);    
   }    
   file3.close();    
   file2.close();    
   file1.close();  
 }
}

In this program, we are assuming that you have two files: file1.txt and file2.txt which have the following data:

• file1: Welcome to Java Programming.
• file2: This is an example of Java SequenceInputStream class.

After executing the above program, the following output will display:

Output:
      Welcome to Java Programming. This is an example of Java SequenceInputStream class.

This program is a simple example of the process of concatenation of two files into a single file. In this program, we have created two objects of class FileInputStream for files “file1.txt” and “file2.txt”.

The two FileInputStream object reference variables file1 and file2 are passed as arguments to the constructor of SequenceInputStream to create a single object input stream file.

The file file3 now contains the combination of file1 and file2 and displays data of file3 on the console after concatenation.

2. Let’s take an example program where we will concat, buffer, and display the data of two independent files.

Program code 2:

package javaProgram;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.SequenceInputStream;
public class SequenceInputStreamEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
  FileInputStream file1 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file1.txt");    
  FileInputStream file2 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file2.txt");  

// Concatenate file1 and file2 into file3.
   SequenceInputStream file3 = new SequenceInputStream(file1, file2);    
  
// Now create buffered input and output stream objects.
   BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(file3);
   BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(System.out);
  
// Reading and writing until the end of buffers.   
   int i;    
   while((i = bis.read()) != -1) {    
     bos.write((char)i);    
   }    
   bis.close();    
   bos.close();    
   file1.close(); 
   file2.close();
 }
}

In this program, we assume that you have the following contents:

• file1: Hello!
• file2: Welcome to Java Programming world.

After executing this program, you will get the following output on the console.

Output:
      Hello! Welcome to Java Programming world.

This program shows the entire process of concatenation, buffering, and displaying data of two independent files in a proper manner.

3. Let’s take an example program we will read the data from two files “file1.txt” and “file2.txt” and writes them into another file “fileout.txt”. Look at the source code to understand better.

Program code 3:

package javaProgram;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.SequenceInputStream;
public class SequenceInputStreamEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
  FileInputStream file1 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file1.txt");    
  FileInputStream file2 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file2.txt");  
  FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("D:\\fileout.txt");  

  SequenceInputStream file3 = new SequenceInputStream(file1,file2);    
  
// Now create buffered input and output stream objects.
   BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(file3);
   BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(fos);
  
// Reading and writing until end of buffers.   
   int i;    
   while((i = bis.read()) != -1){    
	  bos.write((char)i);    
   }    
   bis.close();    
   bos.close();    
   fos.close();
   file1.close(); 
   file2.close();
   file3.close();
   System.out.println("Successfully written...");
 }
}

Output:
       Successfully written...

fileout.txt: Hello! Welcome to Java Programming world.

4. Let’s create a program to read data from the files using Enumeration. If you need to read data more than two files, enumeration can be used.

Enumeration object can be created by calling elements() method provided by vector class. Look at the source code.

Program code 4:

package javaProgram;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.SequenceInputStream;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.Vector;
public class SequenceInputStreamEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
  FileInputStream file1 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file1.txt");    
  FileInputStream file2 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file2.txt");  
  FileInputStream file3 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file3.txt");    
  FileInputStream file4 = new FileInputStream("D:\\file4.txt");  

// Creating an object of Vector class for all the streams.    
  Vector v = new Vector();    
   v.add(file1);    
   v.add(file2);    
   v.add(file3);    
   v.add(file4);              

// Creating enumeration object by calling the elements method of vector class.   
   Enumeration en = v.elements();      

// Passing the enumeration object to the constructor of SequenceInputStream class.     
   SequenceInputStream sis = new SequenceInputStream(en);    
  
   int i;    
   while((i = sis.read()) != -1) {    
	 System.out.println((char)i);   
   } 
   sis.close();   
   file1.close(); 
   file2.close();
   file3.close();
   file4.close();
 }
}

In this program, we assume that you will have the following data in the four files.

• file1: Welcome
• file2: to Java
• file3: Programming
• file4: world.

After the execution of program, you will get the following output:

Output:
      Welcome to Java Programming world.

Hope that this tutorial has elaborated all the important points related to SequenceInputStream class in Java with example programs. I hope that you will have understood all these basic points of the sequence input stream class.

In the next tutorial, we will discuss another topic PrintStream in Java with example programs. Please inform us via email if you find anything incorrect in this tutorial. Your email will be valuable to us.
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