Receiving it as a byte array via socket

Question

Yes, I could know the data end as read() returning -1 and the total byte-count value is in my hand then. But, however, if the byte-count value is N, I want those bytes in a single byte array of size N. What could be the standard, quickest and smartest way of getting the byte array on a socket peer?

Answer 1

hiwa wrote:
The readFully() method takes a byte array as an argument. The size of the array can't be decided as the total data size when we begin reading. We don't know it yet then.
My method would be:
LOOP(read -> out to a ByteArrayOutputStream) -> call ByteArrayOutputStream.toByteArray()
However, if there is/are more smarter ones ...What problem are you actually trying to solve here?
Here's a possible "solution" for you.
Use a buffer. Then read the buffer and append the contents to a larger buffer. With code like this.
private byte[] mergeBuffers(byte[] a, byte b[]){
  byte[] newBuffer = new byte[a.length+b.length];
  System.arraycopy(a,0,newBuffer,0,a.length);
  System.arraycopy(b,0,newBuffer,a.length,b.length);
  return newBuffer;
}so during the read loop as the buffer fills up add the results of the current buffer to your "super"-buffer or whatever you want that has all the data.
And then when you have finished reading trim the byte array to fit.