Socket

In this chapter you will learn:

What is socket

What is socket

A socket is an endpoint of a network connection. A socket enables an application to read from and write to the network. The Socket class represents a "client" socket.

Here are two constructors used to create client sockets:

Socket(String hostName, int port) throws UnknownHostException, IOException
Creates a socket connected to the named host and port.
Socket(InetAddress ipAddress, int port) throws IOException
Creates a socket using a preexisting InetAddress object and a port.

Methods from Socket

InetAddress getInetAddress( )
Returns the InetAddress associated with the Socket object. It returns null if the socket is not connected.
int getPort( )
Returns the remote port to which the invoking Socket object is connected. It returns 0 if the socket is not connected.
int getLocalPort( )
Returns the local port to which the invoking Socket object is bound. It returns -1 if the socket is not bound.
InputStream getInputStream( ) throws IOException
Returns the InputStream associated with the invoking socket.
OutputStream getOutputStream( ) throws IOException
Returns the OutputStream associated with the invoking socket.
connect( )
allows you to specify a new connection;
isConnected( )
returns true if the socket is connected to a server;
isBound( )
returns true if the socket is bound to an address;
isClosed( )
returns true if the socket is closed.