How to Cache InputStream for Multiple Use

Question

I have an InputStream of a file and i use apache poi components to read from it like this:

POIFSFileSystem fileSystem = new POIFSFileSystem(inputStream);


        

Answer 1

Use below implementation for more custom use -

public class ReusableBufferedInputStream extends BufferedInputStream
{

    private int totalUse;
    private int used;

    public ReusableBufferedInputStream(InputStream in, Integer totalUse)
    {
        super(in);
        if (totalUse > 1)
        {
            super.mark(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
            this.totalUse = totalUse;
            this.used = 1;
        }
        else
        {
            this.totalUse = 1;
            this.used = 1;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void close() throws IOException
    {
        if (used < totalUse)
        {
            super.reset();
            ++used;
        }
        else
        {
            super.close();
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

What exactly do you mean with "cache"? Do you want the different POIFSFileSystem to start at the beginning of the stream? If so, there's absolutely no point caching anything in your Java code; it will be done by the OS, just open a new stream.

Or do you wan to continue reading at the point where the first POIFSFileSystem stopped? That's not caching, and it's very difficult to do. The only way I can think of if you can't avoid the stream getting closed would be to write a thin wrapper that counts how many bytes have been read and then open a new stream and skip that many bytes. But that could fail when POIFSFileSystem internally uses something like a BufferedInputStream.

Answer 3

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    BufferedInputStream inputStream = new BufferedInputStream(IOUtils.toInputStream("Foobar"));
    inputStream.mark(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
    System.out.println(IOUtils.toString(inputStream));
    inputStream.reset();
    System.out.println(IOUtils.toString(inputStream));
}

This works. IOUtils is part of commons IO.

Answer 4

Try BufferedInputStream, which adds mark and reset functionality to another input stream, and just override its close method:

public class UnclosableBufferedInputStream extends BufferedInputStream {

    public UnclosableBufferedInputStream(InputStream in) {
        super(in);
        super.mark(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
    }

    @Override
    public void close() throws IOException {
        super.reset();
    }
}

So:

UnclosableBufferedInputStream  bis = new UnclosableBufferedInputStream (inputStream);

and use bis wherever inputStream was used before.