java - How to read DataInputStream until the end without needing to catch an EOFException?

Question

Suppose we have some binary data byte[] data that only contains Integers. If I wanted to read this data utilizing a DataInputStream, the only approach I can come up with is the following:

DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream(data));
try {
    while (true){
        int i = in.readInt();
    }
} catch (EOFException e) {
    // we're done!
} catch (IOException e){
    throw new RuntimeException(e);
}

What bugs me about this is that reaching the end of the stream is expected and it would exceptional only if no exception was thrown, what IMO defeats the purpose of exceptions in the first place.

When using Java NIO's IntBuffer, there's no such problem.

IntBuffer in = ByteBuffer.wrap(data).asIntBuffer();
while (in.hasRemaining()){
    int i = in.get();
}

Coming from C# and being in the process of learning Java I refuse to believe that this is the intended way of doing this.

Moreover, I just came across Java NIO which seems to be "quite new". Using IntBuffer here instead would be my way of procrastinating the matter. Regardless, I wanna know how this is properly done in Java.

Answer 1

You can't. readInt() can return any integer value, so an out-of-band mechanism is required to signal end of stream, so an exception is thrown. That's how the API was designed. Nothing you can do about it.