Deflater

public class Deflater
extends Object

java.lang.Object
   ↳ java.util.zip.Deflater


This class provides support for general purpose compression using the popular ZLIB compression library. The ZLIB compression library was initially developed as part of the PNG graphics standard and is not protected by patents. It is fully described in the specifications at the java.util.zip package description.

This class deflates sequences of bytes into ZLIB compressed data format. The input byte sequence is provided in either byte array or byte buffer, via one of the setInput() methods. The output byte sequence is written to the output byte array or byte buffer passed to the deflate() methods.

The following code fragment demonstrates a trivial compression and decompression of a string using Deflater and Inflater.

 try {
     // Encode a String into bytes
     String inputString = "blahblahblah";
     byte[] input = inputString.getBytes("UTF-8");

     // Compress the bytes
     byte[] output = new byte[100];
     Deflater compresser = new Deflater();
     compresser.setInput(input);
     compresser.finish();
     int compressedDataLength = compresser.deflate(output);
     compresser.end();

     // Decompress the bytes
     Inflater decompresser = new Inflater();
     decompresser.setInput(output, 0, compressedDataLength);
     byte[] result = new byte[100];
     int resultLength = decompresser.inflate(result);
     decompresser.end();

     // Decode the bytes into a String
     String outputString = new String(result, 0, resultLength, "UTF-8");
 } catch (java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
     // handle
 } catch (java.util.zip.DataFormatException ex) {
     // handle
 }
 

See also:

Summary

Constants

int BEST_COMPRESSION

Compression level for best compression.

int BEST_SPEED

Compression level for fastest compression.

int DEFAULT_COMPRESSION

Default compression level.

int DEFAULT_STRATEGY

Default compression strategy.

int DEFLATED

Compression method for the deflate algorithm (the only one currently supported).

int FILTERED

Compression strategy best used for data consisting mostly of small values with a somewhat random distribution.

int FULL_FLUSH

Compression flush mode used to flush out all pending output and reset the deflater.

int HUFFMAN_ONLY

Compression strategy for Huffman coding only.

int NO_COMPRESSION

Compression level for no compression.

int NO_FLUSH

Compression flush mode used to achieve best compression result.

int SYNC_FLUSH

Compression flush mode used to flush out all pending output; may degrade compression for some compression algorithms.

Public constructors

Deflater(int level, boolean nowrap)

Creates a new compressor using the specified compression level.

Deflater(int level)

Creates a new compressor using the specified compression level.

Deflater()

Creates a new compressor with the default compression level.

Public methods

int deflate(byte[] output, int off, int len)

Compresses the input data and fills specified buffer with compressed data.

int deflate(byte[] output)

Compresses the input data and fills specified buffer with compressed data.

int deflate(byte[] output, int off, int len, int flush)

Compresses the input data and fills the specified buffer with compressed data.

int deflate(ByteBuffer output, int flush)

Compresses the input data and fills the specified buffer with compressed data.

int deflate(ByteBuffer output)

Compresses the input data and fills specified buffer with compressed data.

void end()

Closes the compressor and discards any unprocessed input.

void finish()

When called, indicates that compression should end with the current contents of the input buffer.

boolean finished()

Returns true if the end of the compressed data output stream has been reached.

int getAdler()

Returns the ADLER-32 value of the uncompressed data.

long getBytesRead()

Returns the total number of uncompressed bytes input so far.

long getBytesWritten()

Returns the total number of compressed bytes output so far.

int getTotalIn()

Returns the total number of uncompressed bytes input so far.

int getTotalOut()

Returns the total number of compressed bytes output so far.

boolean needsInput()

Returns true if no data remains in the input buffer.

void reset()

Resets deflater so that a new set of input data can be processed.

void setDictionary(ByteBuffer dictionary)

Sets preset dictionary for compression.

void setDictionary(byte[] dictionary, int off, int len)

Sets preset dictionary for compression.

void setDictionary(byte[] dictionary)

Sets preset dictionary for compression.

void setInput(ByteBuffer input)

Sets input data for compression.

void setInput(byte[] input, int off, int len)

Sets input data for compression.

void setInput(byte[] input)

Sets input data for compression.

void setLevel(int level)

Sets the compression level to the specified value.

void setStrategy(int strategy)

Sets the compression strategy to the specified value.

Inherited methods

Constants

BEST_COMPRESSION

Added in API level 1
public static final int BEST_COMPRESSION

Compression level for best compression.

Constant Value: 9 (0x00000009)

BEST_SPEED

Added in API level 1
public static final int BEST_SPEED

Compression level for fastest compression.

Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

DEFAULT_COMPRESSION

Added in API level 1
public static final int DEFAULT_COMPRESSION

Default compression level.

Constant Value: -1 (0xffffffff)

DEFAULT_STRATEGY

Added in API level 1
public static final int DEFAULT_STRATEGY

Default compression strategy.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

DEFLATED

Added in API level 1
public static final int DEFLATED

Compression method for the deflate algorithm (the only one currently supported).

Constant Value: 8 (0x00000008)

FILTERED

Added in API level 1
public static final int FILTERED

Compression strategy best used for data consisting mostly of small values with a somewhat random distribution. Forces more Huffman coding and less string matching.

Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

FULL_FLUSH

Added in API level 19
public static final int FULL_FLUSH

Compression flush mode used to flush out all pending output and reset the deflater. Using this mode too often can seriously degrade compression.

Constant Value: 3 (0x00000003)

HUFFMAN_ONLY

Added in API level 1
public static final int HUFFMAN_ONLY

Compression strategy for Huffman coding only.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

NO_COMPRESSION

Added in API level 1
public static final int NO_COMPRESSION

Compression level for no compression.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

NO_FLUSH

Added in API level 19
public static final int NO_FLUSH

Compression flush mode used to achieve best compression result.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

SYNC_FLUSH

Added in API level 19
public static final int SYNC_FLUSH

Compression flush mode used to flush out all pending output; may degrade compression for some compression algorithms.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

Public constructors

Deflater

Added in API level 1
public Deflater (int level, 
                boolean nowrap)

Creates a new compressor using the specified compression level. If 'nowrap' is true then the ZLIB header and checksum fields will not be used in order to support the compression format used in both GZIP and PKZIP.

Parameters
level int: the compression level (0-9)

nowrap boolean: if true then use GZIP compatible compression

Deflater

Added in API level 1
public Deflater (int level)

Creates a new compressor using the specified compression level. Compressed data will be generated in ZLIB format.

Parameters
level int: the compression level (0-9)

Deflater

Added in API level 1
public Deflater ()

Creates a new compressor with the default compression level. Compressed data will be generated in ZLIB format.

Public methods

deflate

Added in API level 1
public int deflate (byte[] output, 
                int off, 
                int len)

Compresses the input data and fills specified buffer with compressed data. Returns actual number of bytes of compressed data. A return value of 0 indicates that needsInput should be called in order to determine if more input data is required.

This method uses NO_FLUSH as its compression flush mode. An invocation of this method of the form deflater.deflate(b, off, len) yields the same result as the invocation of deflater.deflate(b, off, len, Deflater.NO_FLUSH).

Parameters
output byte: the buffer for the compressed data

off int: the start offset of the data

len int: the maximum number of bytes of compressed data

Returns
int the actual number of bytes of compressed data written to the output buffer

deflate

Added in API level 1
public int deflate (byte[] output)

Compresses the input data and fills specified buffer with compressed data. Returns actual number of bytes of compressed data. A return value of 0 indicates that needsInput should be called in order to determine if more input data is required.

This method uses NO_FLUSH as its compression flush mode. An invocation of this method of the form deflater.deflate(b) yields the same result as the invocation of deflater.deflate(b, 0, b.length, Deflater.NO_FLUSH).

Parameters
output byte: the buffer for the compressed data

Returns
int the actual number of bytes of compressed data written to the output buffer

deflate

Added in API level 19
public int deflate (byte[] output, 
                int off, 
                int len, 
                int flush)

Compresses the input data and fills the specified buffer with compressed data. Returns actual number of bytes of data compressed.

Compression flush mode is one of the following three modes:

  • NO_FLUSH: allows the deflater to decide how much data to accumulate, before producing output, in order to achieve the best compression (should be used in normal use scenario). A return value of 0 in this flush mode indicates that needsInput() should be called in order to determine if more input data is required.
  • SYNC_FLUSH: all pending output in the deflater is flushed, to the specified output buffer, so that an inflater that works on compressed data can get all input data available so far (In particular the needsInput() returns true after this invocation if enough output space is provided). Flushing with SYNC_FLUSH may degrade compression for some compression algorithms and so it should be used only when necessary.
  • FULL_FLUSH: all pending output is flushed out as with SYNC_FLUSH. The compression state is reset so that the inflater that works on the compressed output data can restart from this point if previous compressed data has been damaged or if random access is desired. Using FULL_FLUSH too often can seriously degrade compression.

In the case of FULL_FLUSH or SYNC_FLUSH, if the return value is len, the space available in output buffer b, this method should be invoked again with the same flush parameter and more output space. Make sure that len is greater than 6 to avoid flush marker (5 bytes) being repeatedly output to the output buffer every time this method is invoked.

If the setInput(java.nio.ByteBuffer) method was called to provide a buffer for input, the input buffer's position will be advanced by the number of bytes consumed by this operation.

Parameters
output byte: the buffer for the compressed data

off int: the start offset of the data

len int: the maximum number of bytes of compressed data

flush int: the compression flush mode

Returns
int the actual number of bytes of compressed data written to the output buffer

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the flush mode is invalid

deflate

public int deflate (ByteBuffer output, 
                int flush)

Compresses the input data and fills the specified buffer with compressed data. Returns actual number of bytes of data compressed.

Compression flush mode is one of the following three modes:

  • NO_FLUSH: allows the deflater to decide how much data to accumulate, before producing output, in order to achieve the best compression (should be used in normal use scenario). A return value of 0 in this flush mode indicates that needsInput() should be called in order to determine if more input data is required.
  • SYNC_FLUSH: all pending output in the deflater is flushed, to the specified output buffer, so that an inflater that works on compressed data can get all input data available so far (In particular the needsInput() returns true after this invocation if enough output space is provided). Flushing with SYNC_FLUSH may degrade compression for some compression algorithms and so it should be used only when necessary.
  • FULL_FLUSH: all pending output is flushed out as with SYNC_FLUSH. The compression state is reset so that the inflater that works on the compressed output data can restart from this point if previous compressed data has been damaged or if random access is desired. Using FULL_FLUSH too often can seriously degrade compression.

In the case of FULL_FLUSH or SYNC_FLUSH, if the return value is equal to the remaining space of the buffer, this method should be invoked again with the same flush parameter and more output space. Make sure that the buffer has at least 6 bytes of remaining space to avoid the flush marker (5 bytes) being repeatedly output to the output buffer every time this method is invoked.

On success, the position of the given output byte buffer will be advanced by as many bytes as were produced by the operation, which is equal to the number returned by this method.

If the setInput(java.nio.ByteBuffer) method was called to provide a buffer for input, the input buffer's position will be advanced by the number of bytes consumed by this operation.

Parameters
output ByteBuffer: the buffer for the compressed data

flush int: the compression flush mode

Returns
int the actual number of bytes of compressed data written to the output buffer

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the flush mode is invalid

deflate

public int deflate (ByteBuffer output)

Compresses the input data and fills specified buffer with compressed data. Returns actual number of bytes of compressed data. A return value of 0 indicates that needsInput should be called in order to determine if more input data is required.

This method uses NO_FLUSH as its compression flush mode. An invocation of this method of the form deflater.deflate(output) yields the same result as the invocation of deflater.deflate(output, Deflater.NO_FLUSH).

Parameters
output ByteBuffer: the buffer for the compressed data

Returns
int the actual number of bytes of compressed data written to the output buffer

end

Added in API level 1
public void end ()

Closes the compressor and discards any unprocessed input. This method should be called when the compressor is no longer being used. Once this method is called, the behavior of the Deflater object is undefined.

finish

Added in API level 1
public void finish ()

When called, indicates that compression should end with the current contents of the input buffer.

finished

Added in API level 1
public boolean finished ()

Returns true if the end of the compressed data output stream has been reached.

Returns
boolean true if the end of the compressed data output stream has been reached

getAdler

Added in API level 1
public int getAdler ()

Returns the ADLER-32 value of the uncompressed data.

Returns
int the ADLER-32 value of the uncompressed data

getBytesRead

Added in API level 1
public long getBytesRead ()

Returns the total number of uncompressed bytes input so far.

Returns
long the total (non-negative) number of uncompressed bytes input so far

getBytesWritten

Added in API level 1
public long getBytesWritten ()

Returns the total number of compressed bytes output so far.

Returns
long the total (non-negative) number of compressed bytes output so far

getTotalIn

Added in API level 1
public int getTotalIn ()

Returns the total number of uncompressed bytes input so far.

Since the number of bytes may be greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE, the getBytesRead() method is now the preferred means of obtaining this information.

Returns
int the total number of uncompressed bytes input so far

getTotalOut

Added in API level 1
public int getTotalOut ()

Returns the total number of compressed bytes output so far.

Since the number of bytes may be greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE, the getBytesWritten() method is now the preferred means of obtaining this information.

Returns
int the total number of compressed bytes output so far

needsInput

Added in API level 1
public boolean needsInput ()

Returns true if no data remains in the input buffer. This can be used to determine if one of the setInput() methods should be called in order to provide more input.

Returns
boolean true if the input data buffer is empty and setInput() should be called in order to provide more input

reset

Added in API level 1
public void reset ()

Resets deflater so that a new set of input data can be processed. Keeps current compression level and strategy settings.

setDictionary

public void setDictionary (ByteBuffer dictionary)

Sets preset dictionary for compression. A preset dictionary is used when the history buffer can be predetermined. When the data is later uncompressed with Inflater.inflate(), Inflater.getAdler() can be called in order to get the Adler-32 value of the dictionary required for decompression.

The bytes in given byte buffer will be fully consumed by this method. On return, its position will equal its limit.

Parameters
dictionary ByteBuffer: the dictionary data bytes

setDictionary

Added in API level 1
public void setDictionary (byte[] dictionary, 
                int off, 
                int len)

Sets preset dictionary for compression. A preset dictionary is used when the history buffer can be predetermined. When the data is later uncompressed with Inflater.inflate(), Inflater.getAdler() can be called in order to get the Adler-32 value of the dictionary required for decompression.

Parameters
dictionary byte: the dictionary data bytes

off int: the start offset of the data

len int: the length of the data

setDictionary

Added in API level 1
public void setDictionary (byte[] dictionary)

Sets preset dictionary for compression. A preset dictionary is used when the history buffer can be predetermined. When the data is later uncompressed with Inflater.inflate(), Inflater.getAdler() can be called in order to get the Adler-32 value of the dictionary required for decompression.

Parameters
dictionary byte: the dictionary data bytes

setInput

public void setInput (ByteBuffer input)

Sets input data for compression.

One of the setInput() methods should be called whenever needsInput() returns true indicating that more input data is required.

The given buffer's position will be advanced as deflate operations are performed, up to the buffer's limit. The input buffer may be modified (refilled) between deflate operations; doing so is equivalent to creating a new buffer and setting it with this method.

Modifying the input buffer's contents, position, or limit concurrently with an deflate operation will result in undefined behavior, which may include incorrect operation results or operation failure.

Parameters
input ByteBuffer: the input data bytes

See also:

setInput

Added in API level 1
public void setInput (byte[] input, 
                int off, 
                int len)

Sets input data for compression.

One of the setInput() methods should be called whenever needsInput() returns true indicating that more input data is required.

Parameters
input byte: the input data bytes

off int: the start offset of the data

len int: the length of the data

See also:

setInput

Added in API level 1
public void setInput (byte[] input)

Sets input data for compression.

One of the setInput() methods should be called whenever needsInput() returns true indicating that more input data is required.

Parameters
input byte: the input data bytes

See also:

setLevel

Added in API level 1
public void setLevel (int level)

Sets the compression level to the specified value.

If the compression level is changed, the next invocation of deflate will compress the input available so far with the old level (and may be flushed); the new level will take effect only after that invocation.

Parameters
level int: the new compression level (0-9)

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the compression level is invalid

setStrategy

Added in API level 1
public void setStrategy (int strategy)

Sets the compression strategy to the specified value.

If the compression strategy is changed, the next invocation of deflate will compress the input available so far with the old strategy (and may be flushed); the new strategy will take effect only after that invocation.

Parameters
strategy int: the new compression strategy

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the compression strategy is invalid