Question

Is there anyway to check whether an OutputStream is closed without attempting to write to it and catching the IOException?

For example, consider the following contrived method:

public boolean isStreamClosed(OutputStream out){
    if( /* stream isn't closed */){
        return true;
    }else{
        return false;
    }
}

What could you replace /* stream isn't closed */ with?

Answer 1

The underlying stream may not know it its closed until you attempt to write to it (e.g. if the other end of a socket closes it)

The simplest approach is to use it and handle what happens if it closed then, rather than testing it first as well.

No matter what you test, there is always the chance you will get an IOException, so you cannot avoid the exception handling code. Adding this test is likely to complicate the code.