org.simpleframework.util.buffer
Interface Buffer

All Superinterfaces:
Stream
All Known Implementing Classes:
ArrayBuffer, BufferAllocator

public interface Buffer
extends Stream

The Buffer interface represents a collection of bytes that can be written to and later read. This is used to provide a region of memory is such a way that the underlying representation of that memory is independent of its use. Typically buffers are implemented as either allocated byte arrays or files.

Author:
Niall Gallagher
See Also:
Allocator

Method Summary
 Buffer allocate()
          This method is used to allocate a segment of this buffer as a separate buffer object.
 Buffer append(byte[] array)
          This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer.
 Buffer append(byte[] array, int off, int len)
          This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer.
 void clear()
          This will clear all data from the buffer.
 void close()
          This method is used to ensure the buffer can be closed.
 java.lang.String encode()
          This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string.
 java.lang.String encode(java.lang.String charset)
          This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string.
 
Methods inherited from interface org.simpleframework.util.buffer.Stream
getInputStream
 

Method Detail

allocate

Buffer allocate()
                throws java.io.IOException
This method is used to allocate a segment of this buffer as a separate buffer object. This allows the buffer to be sliced in to several smaller independent buffers, while still allowing the parent buffer to manage a single buffer. This is useful if the parent is split in to logically smaller segments.

Returns:
this returns a buffer which is a segment of this buffer
Throws:
java.io.IOException

encode

java.lang.String encode()
                        throws java.io.IOException
This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string. This is useful if the contents need to be manipulated as a string or transferred into another encoding. If the UTF-8 content encoding is not supported the platform default is used, however this is unlikely as UTF-8 should be supported.

Returns:
this returns a UTF-8 encoding of the buffer contents
Throws:
java.io.IOException

encode

java.lang.String encode(java.lang.String charset)
                        throws java.io.IOException
This method is used to acquire the buffered bytes as a string. This is useful if the contents need to be manipulated as a string or transferred into another encoding. This will convert the bytes using the specified character encoding format.

Parameters:
charset - this is the charset to encode the data with
Returns:
this returns the encoding of the buffer contents
Throws:
java.io.IOException

append

Buffer append(byte[] array)
              throws java.io.IOException
This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer. This will expand the capacity of the buffer if there is not enough space to accommodate the extra bytes.

Parameters:
array - this is the byte array to append to this buffer
Returns:
this returns this buffer for another operation
Throws:
java.io.IOException

append

Buffer append(byte[] array,
              int off,
              int len)
              throws java.io.IOException
This method is used to append bytes to the end of the buffer. This will expand the capacity of the buffer if there is not enough space to accommodate the extra bytes.

Parameters:
array - this is the byte array to append to this buffer
len - the number of bytes to be read from the array
off - this is the offset to begin reading the bytes from
Returns:
this returns this buffer for another operation
Throws:
java.io.IOException

clear

void clear()
           throws java.io.IOException
This will clear all data from the buffer. This simply sets the count to be zero, it will not clear the memory occupied by the instance as the internal buffer will remain. This allows the memory occupied to be reused as many times as is required.

Throws:
java.io.IOException

close

void close()
           throws java.io.IOException
This method is used to ensure the buffer can be closed. Once the buffer is closed it is an immutable collection of bytes and can not longer be modified. This ensures that it can be passed by value without the risk of modification of the bytes.

Throws:
java.io.IOException