how we can detect end of file from readChar() method

[Thakur Sachin Singh]

please anyone tell me how we can find out end of file character from readChar() method in DataInputstream class.

[Rob Spoor]

You can't. Well, not directly. Most of the reading methods from DataInputStream assume there are enough bytes available to return the data. The only differences are read(), read(byte[]), read(byte[], int, int) and readLine(). The first three return -1 when there is no data, the latter returns null.

Now I said not directly. That's because all the other methods throw an EOFException to indicate that the end of the file was reached. You can catch that and then stop when this occurs.

Another option is to use a BufferedInputStream wrapped inside the DataInputStream. That way you can use the mark(int) and reset() methods:

// before: DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(something);
DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(something));
// read other things as usual
dis.mark(2);
boolean oneByte = dis.read() != -1;
boolean twoBytes = oneByte && dis.read() != -1;
if (twoBytes)
{
    // good, two bytes available so also one char
    dis.reset(); // go back to just before the two reads
    char c = dis.readChar();
}
else if (oneByte)
{
    // only one byte
}
else
{
    // no bytes at all
}

This last way is the safest because catching the EOFException will still have read (and consumed) one byte if there is only one available.

Still, DataInputStream should be used only when you know what there is. After all, if you try to read a char while there is something different (perhaps a long) then you will get strange results. If you have written a number of chars before and now you want to read them all then you should change the file structure: first write an int with the number of chars to write, then write that many chars. The reading will then first read that int, and then read just as many chars.