Question:
Hi, I just started to program in Java in Win95 platform. Even though I/O through files has already been discussed, I am having trouble reading a double from the command line and then writing that same number with .writeDouble() and System.out.println();

Here is the code of the program:

import java.io.*;public class IOtest {        public static void main(String args[]) {                         try {           System.out.println(“Enter double”);           DataInputStream istream = new DataInputStream(System.in);           DataOutputStream ostream = new DataOutputStream(System.out);                      double p = istream.readDouble();           System.out.println(“This is with ostream”);           ostream.writeDouble(p);           System.out.println(“This is with System.out ” + p);                   }        catch(IOException e) {                System.out.println(e.getMessage());        }     }}

This is with ostream1.5 This is with System.out 8.54833e-072

Answer:
Yours is a very common confusion. When you read a float or double via DataInputStream, what Java expects is just that: binary data in IEEE 754 format. Accordingly, what you have to do is to read in the user input as a string, and then use conversion functions to produce your floats or doubles. I have modified your program to do this:

import java.io.*;public class IOtest {        public static void main(String args[]) {                         try {           System.out.println(“Enter double”);           DataInputStream istream = new DataInputStream(System.in);           DataOutputStream ostream = new DataOutputStream(System.out);           PrintStream postream = new PrintStream(ostream);                      //double p = istream.readDouble();           String line = istream.readLine().trim();           double p = (new Double(line)).doubleValue();           System.out.println(“This is with ostream”);           ostream.writeDouble(p);           System.out.println(”

This is with PrintStream”);           postream.print(p);           System.out.println(”

This is with System.out ” + p);                   }        catch(IOException e) {                System.out.println(e.getMessage());        }     }}

In the CD-ROM included with Cay Horstmann’s “Core Java” book, you can findtwo classes that can help you for both input and output conversions: Consoleand Format, respectively.