Compressing Streams

The java.util.zip package, shown in Figure 10-1, contains six stream classes and another half dozen assorted classes that read and write data in zip, gzip, and inflate/deflate formats. Java uses these classes to read and write JAR archives and to display PNG images. The java.util.zip classes are well-suited for general-purpose compression and decompression.

Figure 10-1. The java.util.zip package hierarchy