Basic Client and Server Communication using a Socket

Server: Start, and wait for incoming connections

//Open a listening "ServerSocket" on port 1234.
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(1234); 

while (true) {
    // Wait for a client connection.
    // Once a client connected, we get a "Socket" object
    // that can be used to send and receive messages to/from the newly 
    // connected client
    Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();            
    
    // Here we'll add the code to handle one specific client.
}

Server: Handling clients

We’ll handle each client in a separate thread so multiple clients could interact with the server at the same time. This technique works fine as long as the number of clients is low (<< 1000 clients, depending on the OS architecture and the expected load of each thread).

new Thread(() -> {
    // Get the socket's InputStream, to read bytes from the socket
    InputStream in = clientSocket.getInputStream();
    // wrap the InputStream in a reader so you can read a String instead of bytes
    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(in, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
    // Read text from the socket and print line by line
    String line;
    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
        System.out.println(line);
    }
    }).start();

Client: Connect to the server and send a message

// 127.0.0.1 is the address of the server (this is the localhost address; i.e.
// the address of our own machine)
// 1234 is the port that the server will be listening on
Socket socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1234);

// Write a string into the socket, and flush the buffer
OutputStream outStream = socket.getOutputStream();
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(
        new OutputStreamWriter(outStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
writer.println("Hello world!");
writer.flush();

Closing Sockets and Handling Exceptions

The above examples left out some things to make them easier to read.

Just like files and other external resources, it’s important we tell the OS when we’re done with them. When we’re done with a socket, call socket.close() to properly close it.
Sockets handle I/O (Input/Output) operations that depend on a variety of external factors. For example what if the other side suddenly disconnects? What if there are network error? These things are beyond our control. This is why many socket operations might throw exceptions, especially IOException.

A more complete code for the client would therefore be something like this:

// "try-with-resources" will close the socket once we leave its scope
 try (Socket socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1234)) {
     OutputStream outStream = socket.getOutputStream();
     PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(
             new OutputStreamWriter(outStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
     writer.println("Hello world!");
     writer.flush();
 } catch (IOException e) {
     //Handle the error
 }

Basic Server and Client - complete examples

Server:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class Server {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        try (ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(1234)) {
            while (true) {
                // Wait for a client connection.
                Socket clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
                
                // Create and start a thread to handle the new client
                new Thread(() -> {
                    try {
                        // Get the socket's InputStream, to read bytes 
                        // from the socket
                        InputStream in = clientSocket.getInputStream();
                        // wrap the InputStream in a reader so you can 
                        // read a String instead of bytes
                        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
                             new InputStreamReader(in, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
                        // Read from the socket and print line by line
                        String line;
                        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                            System.out.println(line);
                        }
                    }
                    catch (IOException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    } finally {
                        // This finally block ensures the socket is closed.
                        // A try-with-resources block cannot be used because
                        // the socket is passed into a thread, so it isn't 
                        // created and closed in the same block
                        try {
                            clientSocket.close();
                        } catch (IOException e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        }
                    }
                }).start();
            }
        }
        catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
}

Client:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class Client {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        try (Socket socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1234)) {
            // We'll reach this code once we've connected to the server
            
            // Write a string into the socket, and flush the buffer
            OutputStream outStream = socket.getOutputStream();
            PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(
                    new OutputStreamWriter(outStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
            writer.println("Hello world!");
            writer.flush();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // Exception should be handled.
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

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