Java — How to read an unknown number of bytes from an inputStream (socket/socketServer)?

Question

Looking to read in some bytes over a socket using an inputStream. The bytes sent by the server may be of variable quantity, and the client doesn\'t know in advance the lengt

Answer 1

Here is a simpler example using ByteArrayOutputStream...

        socketInputStream = socket.getInputStream();
        int expectedDataLength = 128; //todo - set accordingly/experiment. Does not have to be precise value.
        ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(expectedDataLength);
        byte[] chunk = new byte[expectedDataLength];
        int numBytesJustRead;
        while((numBytesJustRead = socketInputStream.read(chunk)) != -1) {
            baos.write(chunk, 0, numBytesJustRead);
        }
        return baos.toString("UTF-8");

However, if the server does not return a -1, you will need to detect the end of the data some other way - e.g., maybe the returned content always ends with a certain marker (e.g., ""), or you could possibly solve using socket.setSoTimeout(). (Mentioning this as it is seems to be a common problem.)