CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javafilebufferedreader
saplingPro
saplingPro

Reputation: 21319

What are the efficiency implications of using BufferedReader?

What is the difference between these 2 methods used to read characters from a file.

FIRST

FileReader fr = new FileReader( new File( "file.txt") );
int x = 0;
while( ( x = fr.read() ) != -1 ) {
    System.out.println( (char) x );
}

SECOND

BufferedReader bfr = new BufferedReader( new FileReader( new File( "file.txt") ) );
int x = 0;
while( ( x = bfr.read() ) != -1 ) {
    System.out.println( (char) x );
}

Both the codes read the characters from the file and write it on the console.

Which one of the method is more efficient and why ? Or it's the same thing ?

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1399

Answers (3)

user517491
user517491

Reputation:

Consider a water tank 5km away from you. For every bucket of water you had to travel 5km. For reducing your effort, you bring a small tank and fill it once for 3-4 days. Then full your buckets from the small water tank, inside your house.

In above example the water tank 5km away is a file on the hard disk, If you use a bare reader, it is like travelling 5km for every bucket of water. So you bring a small tank(BufferedReader).

Upvotes: 15

weekens
weekens

Reputation: 8282

Just a little addition to @cwallenpoole's answer. There is also difference in the interface. For example, in BufferedReader there is a nice method readLine(), which I use heavily.

Upvotes: 0

cwallenpoole
cwallenpoole

Reputation: 81988

Thus spake the docs:

In general, each read request made of a Reader causes a corresponding read request to be made of the underlying character or byte stream. It is therefore advisable to wrap a BufferedReader around any Reader whose read() operations may be costly, such as FileReaders and InputStreamReaders.

Upvotes: 9

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