The byte stream classes cannot work directly with Unicode characters.
Java supports the character I/O via the character stream.
On the top of character stream hierarchies are the Reader and Writer abstract classes.
Reader is an abstract class that defines Java's model of streaming character input.
It implements the AutoCloseable , Closeable, and Readable interfaces.
Writer is an abstract class that defines streaming character output.
It implements the AutoCloseable , Closeable, Flushable, and Appendable interfaces.
Input and output streams are byte-based streams. Readers and writers are character-based streams.
The following table lists Classes in Byte-based and Character-based Input Streams
| Byte-based Input Stream Class | Character-based Input Stream Class |
|---|---|
| InputStream | Reader |
| ByteArrayInputStream | CharArrayReader |
| StringBufferInputStream | StringReader |
| PipedInputStream | PipedReader |
| FileInputStream | FileReader |
| No corresponding class | InputStreamReader |
| FilterInputStream | FilterReader |
| BufferedInputStream | BufferedReader |
| PushbackInputStream | PushbackReader |
| DataInputStream | No corresponding class |
| ObjectInputStream | No corresponding class |
| OutputStream | Writer |
| ByteArrayOutputStream | CharArrayWriter |
| No corresponding class | StringWriter |
| PipedOutputStream | PipedWriter |
| FileOutputStream | FileWriter |
| No corresponding class | OutputStreamWriter |
| FilterOutputStream | FilterWriter |
| BufferedOutputStream | BufferedWriter |
| DataOutputStream | No corresponding class |
| ObjectOutputStream | No corresponding class |
| PrintStream | PrintWriter |