FileInputStream class method read(byte[ ] b) how that works?

Question

I don't understand how the read method works.why do i need the byte array as parameter to the method?

I am sorry if that is to obvious but i am n newbie to Java.

Answer 1

There are several overloaded read methods are there. If you just want to read input stream you can use read() . But if you want to store the data after reading the input stream you should use read(byte[] b) . Data will be stored in that array

Ref : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/FileInputStream.html

Answer 2

As per the javadocs , it reads bytes from input stream and puts it to byte[] upto the length of the byte[] . If the bytes left in input stream is less than than length of byte[] , only the bytes left will be added to byte[] . Rest of the values in byte[] will not be modified and remain as it was at time of initialization.