Character Streams and Byte Streams are two important types of streams in Java used for reading and writing data. Although they both serve the same purpose of reading and writing data, there are some key differences between the two that set them apart. In this article, we will discuss the difference between character streams and byte streams in Java.

Character Streams:

Character streams in Java are used for reading and writing character data. Character streams are high-level streams that work on character data, rather than raw binary data. They use the Unicode character encoding, which is a universal character encoding that represents characters from various scripts and languages. Character streams provide a convenient way of reading and writing text data in a variety of formats, including files, network sockets, and in-memory data structures.

Byte Streams:

Byte streams in Java are used for reading and writing binary data. Byte streams work on raw binary data and provide a way of reading and writing data in its raw form, without any encoding or decoding. They are lower-level streams than character streams and can be used to read and write data in binary format, such as audio, video, and image files. Byte streams are also used to read and write binary data from network sockets and in-memory data structures.

Differences between Character Streams and Byte Streams:

1. Encoding: Character streams use Unicode encoding to represent character data, while byte streams work on raw binary data without any encoding.

2. Character Data vs Binary Data: Character streams are used for reading and writing character data, while byte streams are used for reading and writing binary data.

3. Performance: Byte streams are faster than character streams because they do not require any encoding or decoding of data.

4. Handling of non-text data: Byte streams are better suited for handling non-text data, such as audio and video files, while character streams are better suited for text data.