What is the ByteBuffer getChar() method in Java?

Overview

The getChar method is defined for the ByteBuffer class in Java. The getChar method reads the next 2 bytes in ByteBuffer and returns it as a char. If the index parameter variant of this method is used, then the position from which the bytes are read is specified by the index argument.

Syntax

public abstract char getChar()
public abstract char getChar(int index)

Parameters

index is an integer that specifies the index of the ByteBuffer from which the bytes are to be read.

Return value

An instance of char composed of the 2 bytes read from the ByteBuffer instance is returned.

Exceptions

BufferUnderflowException is thrown if the buffer’s position is not smaller than the size of the buffer.

Example

import java.nio.*;
class Program {
  public static void main( String args[] ) {
    try {
      ByteBuffer buffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(20);
      buffer.asCharBuffer().put("Hello");
      char currentChar;
      System.out.println("Buffer Data: ");
      while ((currentChar = buffer.getChar()) != 0) {
        System.out.println(currentChar);
      }
      System.out.println("Buffer Data at index 0: ");
      System.out.println(buffer.getChar(0));
    } catch (BufferUnderflowException err) {
      System.out.println("\nError: " + err);
    }
  }
}