Java -- How to read an unknown number of bytes from an inputStream (socket/socketServer)?

Question

Looking to read in some bytes over a socket using an inputStream. The bytes sent by the server may be of variable quantity, and the client doesn't know in advance the length of the byte array. How may this be accomplished?

byte b[]; 
sock.getInputStream().read(b);

This causes a 'might not be initialized error' from the Net BzEAnSZ. Help.

Answer 1

You need to expand the buffer as needed, by reading in chunks of bytes, 1024 at a time as in this example code I wrote some time ago

    byte[] resultBuff = new byte[0];
    byte[] buff = new byte[1024];
    int k = -1;
    while((k = sock.getInputStream().read(buff, 0, buff.length)) > -1) {
        byte[] tbuff = new byte[resultBuff.length + k]; // temp buffer size = bytes already read + bytes last read
        System.arraycopy(resultBuff, 0, tbuff, 0, resultBuff.length); // copy previous bytes
        System.arraycopy(buff, 0, tbuff, resultBuff.length, k);  // copy current lot
        resultBuff = tbuff; // call the temp buffer as your result buff
    }
    System.out.println(resultBuff.length + " bytes read.");
    return resultBuff;

Answer 2

Assuming the sender closes the stream at the end of the data:

ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

byte[] buf = new byte[4096];
while(true) {
  int n = is.read(buf);
  if( n < 0 ) break;
  baos.write(buf,0,n);
}

byte data[] = baos.toByteArray();