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Java BufferedReader vs Scanner Class

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

Java provides several classes for reading input, but two of the most commonly used are Scanner and BufferedReader. The main difference between Scanner and BufferedReader is:

• Scanner class provides parsing and input reading capabilities with built-in methods for different data types.
• BufferedReader class reads text efficiently from a character input stream.

Aspect

Scanner

BufferedReader

Package

It is a part of java.util package.

It is a part of java.io package.

Key use

Simple parsing of primitive types and strings

High-performance text reading

Performance

Performance is slower due to parsing overhead and tokenization

Performance is faster due to efficient buffering

Buffer Size

Buffer Size is smaller

Buffer Size is larger

Thread-safe

It is not thread-safe.

It is thread-safe.

Error Handling

Throws an exception like InputMismatchException

Throws an Exception like IOException

Note: Both Scanner and BufferedReader can read from files.

Example:

new Scanner(new File("input.txt")) or,

new BufferedReader(new FileReader("input.txt"))

We use the Scanner class when we need to read and parse input directly into primitive data types or strings, especially in small console-based applications or when performance is not a major concern.

Note: Scanner uses whitespace as the default delimiter. If users input multiple values on the same line (e.g., "Sweta 25"), Scanner will read them sequentially. You can change the delimiter using scanner.useDelimiter() if needed.

Example: The below Java program demonstrates the basic input and output operations using the Scanner class.

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Geeks {

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.print("Enter your name: ");
      
        String name = s.nextLine();
        System.out.print("Enter your age: ");
      
        int age = s.nextInt();
        System.out.println("Name: " + name
                           + ", Age: " + age);
        s.close();
    }
}

Output:

We use BufferedReader when performance is important, especially for efficiently reading large volumes of data or files. BufferedReader reads large chunks of data at once, making it ideal for reading from files or processing large amounts of input.

Note: BufferedReader.readLine() throws a checked IOException, so it must be handled using a try-catch block or declared using throws IOException.

Example: The below Java program demonstrates reading user input from the console using BufferedReader.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class Geeks {
    public static void main(String[] args)
        throws IOException
    {
        BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(System.in));

        System.out.print("Enter your name: ");
        String name = r.readLine();

        System.out.print("Enter your age: ");
        int age = Integer.parseInt(r.readLine());

        System.out.println("Name: " + name
                           + ", Age: " + age);
    }
}

Output:

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