The ByteBuffer class is important because it forms a basis for the use of channels in Java. ByteBuffer class defines six categories of operations upon byte buffers, as stated in the Java 7 documentation:
Absolute and relative get and put methods that read and write single bytes;
Relative bulk get methods that transfer contiguous sequences of bytes from this buffer into an array;
Relative bulk put methods that transfer contiguous sequences of bytes from a byte array or some other byte buffer into this buffer;
Absolute and relative get and put methods that read and write values of other primitive types, translating them to and from sequences of bytes in a particular byte order;
Methods for creating view buffers, which allow a byte buffer to be viewed as a buffer containing values of some other primitive type; and
Methods for compacting, duplicating, and slicing a byte buffer.
Example code : Putting Bytes into a buffer.
// Create an empty ByteBuffer with a 10 byte capacity
ByteBuffer bbuf = ByteBuffer.allocate(10);
// Get the buffer's capacity
int capacity = bbuf.capacity(); // 10
// Use the absolute put(int, byte).
// This method does not affect the position.
bbuf.put(0, (byte)0xFF); // position=0
// Set the position
bbuf.position(5);
// Use the relative put(byte)
bbuf.put((byte)0xFF);
// Get the new position
int pos = bbuf.position(); // 6
// Get remaining byte count
int rem = bbuf.remaining(); // 4
// Set the limit
bbuf.limit(7); // remaining=1
// This convenience method sets the position to 0
bbuf.rewind(); // remaining=7