User Input Mechanism in Java

Recently while writing some java program. I wanted to quickly run some test cases using runtime inputs from console. I am working on some of the legacy system which runs on java1.5 and recently has been upgraded to java1.6 version.

For taking user input during run time, I have always used Scanner API. But recently came to know about Console class. Though it was included as part of Java1.6 release. But I never used it any time. Just wanted to share some information on the available API which is used for user input:

-Scanner (Included in Java1.5)

-BufferedReader (Included in Java1.1)

-Console (Included in Java1.6)

From developers point, I assume following factors could be considered during the selection of any of the above APIs:

If your input size is more, or more number of inputs is going to be used in the program, it is advisable to use BufferedReader instead of Scanner. It will be difficult to observe the speed for fewer inputs. But for huge data (for millions of inputs), definitely there will be an edge in using BufferedReader. Scanner could read anything, for example lines, whitespace as tokens, any other regular expression tokens, characters or numbers. While there is limitation in reading regex for BufferedReader and Console. They could read characters, arrays etc. BufferedReader and Console does not facilitate any kind of parsing unless it is handled explicitly. The Exception handling works differently for each of these. Scanner and Console do not throw Checked exception where as BufferedReader complains for Checked Exception. Scanner isn’t synchronized, BufferedReader synchronized.

These are the few points that could be helpful in understanding the mechanism of taking input from user in Java.

Feel free to add any more points.