In many development projects, we might need to convert an InputStream into a String in java. In this tutorial we will discuss 6 simple and best ways to read or convert an InputStream into a String in Java. Depending upon your project configuration, you can use any of the following methods.

For the purpose of this tutorial, let us assume "inputStream" is a variable of type InputStream.

InputStream inputStream;

Here are the 6 best ways:

1. Using Java 1.8+ inbuilt Streams package:

String result = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream))
                    .lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));

This method works with Java 1.8+

2. Native Java Scanner way:

try (Scanner scanner = new Scanner(inputStream).useDelimiter("\\A")) {
    String result = scanner.hasNext() ? scanner.next() : "";
}

Note that "\A" represents regex pattern for useDelimiter scanner method. "\A" stands for :start of a string! . So when this pattern is supplied, whole stream is ready into the scanner object.

3. Apache commons-io IOUtils way:

String result = IOUtils.toString(inputStream);

For this method, Apache commons-io library should be included into your project. You can include it with the below maven link: https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/commons-io/commons-io/2.6

4. Using Google Guava library:

String result = CharStreams.toString(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));

For this method, Guava library should be included into your project. You can include it with the below maven link: https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.google.guava/guava/r09

5. Spring Boot style:

String content = StreamUtils.copyToString(inputStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

If you are using spring boot framework for your project you can use this. To include spring boot, you can use the below maven repo: https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework/spring-core/5.2.4.RELEASE

6. Plain old ByteArrayOutputStream way:

ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
int length;
while ((length = inputStream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
    baos.write(buffer, 0, length);
}
String result = baos.toString();

These are the 6 easy ways to convert inputStream to string in java. If you have any other better ways to solve this problem, drop your comments below.

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