java image data inputstream

Question

the method below return data from InputStream as a string where the string will be constructed using StringBuilder

String getBytes(InputStream is) throws IOException{
   StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
   int ch;
   while ((ch = is.read()) != -1) sb.append((char)ch);
   is.close();
   return sb.toString();
}

but this method doesnt work properly for image data. the best solution is to build the similar method but returning byte[] rather than string. can one show me how?

Answer 1

Hopefully this is what you are looking for. I'm using this function for my Imgur application which requires an image in the form of a ByteArray.

static File imgFile;
static ByteArrayOutputStream imgStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

public static void bufferImage() {
        try {
                BufferedImage bufImg = ImageIO.read(imgFile);
                ImageIO.write(bufImg, getExtension(imgFile), imgStream);
         } catch (IOException ex) {
                System.out.println("Error buffering image");
           }   
    }

I can provide the getExtension function too if you want.