Why a new InputStreamReader won't read the remaining characters in the console?

Question

So I have a very simple server written in Java:

public class SimpleServer {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(8888);
        System.out.println("Server Socket created, waiting for client...");
        Socket accept = serverSocket.accept();
        InputStreamReader inputStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(accept.getInputStream());
        int read;
        System.out.println("Client connected, waiting for input");
        while ((read = inputStreamReader.read()) != -1) {
            System.out.print((char) read);
        }
    }
}

And here is a code that I use to connect to it:

public class SimpleClient {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        Socket socket = new Socket("localhost",8888);
        OutputStreamWriter outputStream = new OutputStreamWriter(socket.getOutputStream());

        InputStreamReader inputStreamReader;
        char[] chars = new char[5];

        while (true) {
            System.out.println("Say something: ");
            inputStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
            inputStreamReader.read(chars);
            int x = 0;
            for (int i=0;i<5;i++) {
                if(chars[i]!='\u0000') {
                    x++;
                }
            }
            outputStream.write(chars,0,x);
            outputStream.flush();
            chars = new char[5];
        }

    }

}

Now when I type something like this in the terminal of the Client:

123456789

I will see in the terminal of the Server:

Server Socket created, waiting for client...
Client connected, waiting for input
12345

However, when I change client as follows:

public class SimpleClient {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        Socket socket = new Socket("localhost",8888);
        OutputStreamWriter outputStream = new OutputStreamWriter(socket.getOutputStream());

        InputStreamReader inputStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
        char[] chars = new char[5];

        while (true) {
            System.out.println("Say something: ");
            inputStreamReader.read(chars);
            int x = 0;
            for (int i=0;i<5;i++) {
                if(chars[i]!='\u0000') {
                    x++;
                }
            }
            outputStream.write(chars,0,x);
            outputStream.flush();
            chars = new char[5];
        }

    }

}

then for the same input, I will see:

Server Socket created, waiting for client...
Client connected, waiting for input
123456789

My question is, System.out is a static variable which is already open and connected to the terminal in this case. Why is the information in the terminal lost when a new InputStreamReader object is created? Same terminal is passed to the object, isn't it?

Answer 1

Why is the information in the terminal lost when a new InputStreamReader object is created?

When you call read() on the InputStreamReader , it's allowed to (and often will) read more data from the stream than you've actually requested, and store the rest in a buffer, to satisfy later read calls. I suspect the whole of the line of text has actually been read by the first InputStreamReader , so when you construct a second InputStreamReader for the same stream, there's nothing left for it to read, and you'd have to type in more text to get it to do anything.