Java String转InputStream

1. Overview

In this quick tutorial, we’re going to look at how to convert a standard String to an InputStream using plain Java, Guava and the Apache Commons IO library.

This tutorial is part of the Java – Back to Basics series here on Baeldung.

2. Convert With Plain Java

Let’s start with a simple example using Java to do the conversion — using an intermediary byte array:

@Test
public void givenUsingPlainJava_whenConvertingStringToInputStream_thenCorrect() 
  throws IOException {
    String initialString = "text";
    InputStream targetStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(initialString.getBytes());
}

The getBytes() method encodes this String using the platform’s default charset, so to avoid undesirable behavior, we can use getBytes(Charset charset) and control the encoding process.

3. Convert With Guava

Guava doesn’t provide a direct conversion method but does allow us to get a CharSource out of the String and easily convert it to a ByteSource.

Then it’s easy to obtain the InputStream:

@Test
public void givenUsingGuava_whenConvertingStringToInputStream_thenCorrect() 
  throws IOException {
    String initialString = "text";
    InputStream targetStream = 
      CharSource.wrap(initialString).asByteSource(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).openStream();
}

The asByteSource method is in fact marked as @Beta. This means it can be removed in the future Guava release. We need to keep this in mind.

4. Convert With Commons IO

Finally, the Apache Commons IO library provides an excellent direct solution:

@Test
public void givenUsingCommonsIO_whenConvertingStringToInputStream_thenCorrect() 
  throws IOException {
    String initialString = "text";
    InputStream targetStream = IOUtils.toInputStream(initialString);
}

Note that we’re leaving the input stream open in these examples, so don’t forget to close it.

5. Conclusion

In this article, we presented three simple and concise ways to get an InputStream out of a simple String.

As always, the full source code is available over on GitHub.