Resetting byte[] buffer to zeros?

Question

In the following code for sockets, I declare a byte buffer and listen for client messages in a loop:

// Create some buffer
byte[] buffer = new byte[512];

while (true)
{
    // Listen for messages from Client

    int length = socket.getInputStream().read(buffer);

    if (length != -1)
        System.out.println(new String(buffer));
    else
        break;

    // Reset buffer here to zeros?
}

Each time I'd require to reset the contents of buffer to receive a new message. What's the proper way to do this?

Answer 1

You don't need to reset the buffer, you need to a String constructor that does not go past the end of the part of the buffer that has the bytes received:

if (length != -1) {
    System.out.println(new String(buffer, 0, length));
}

Now your code will work even if the buffer is dirty.

Note: For better portability pass the desired Charset to String constructor. Otherwise the String you construct may not match the string that has been transmitted to you through the socket.

Answer 2

Agree with dasblinkenlight answers , but to answer the question itself (how to reset an array), you can use Arrays.fill to set a value to every cell

byte[] array = new byte[10];
Arrays.fill(array, (byte)0);