Qt encapsulates the more generalized notion of byte streams in its QIODevice class, which is the parent class for QFile, as well as network I/O classes such as QTcpSocket. We don’t directly create a QIODevice instance, of course, but instead create something such as a QFile subclass and then work with the QFile instance directly to read from and write to the file.

Before accessing the device, open() must be called to set the correct OpenMode (such as ReadOnly or ReadWrite). You can then write to the device with write() or putChar(), and read by calling either read(), readLine(), or readAll(). Call close() when you are done with the device.

QIODevice distinguishes between two types of devices: random-access devices and sequential devices.

• Random-access devices support seeking to arbitrary positions using seek(). The current position in the file is available by calling pos(). QFile and QBuffer are examples of random-access devices.
• Sequential devices don’t support seeking to arbitrary positions. The data must be read in one pass. The functions pos() and size() don’t work for sequential devices. QTcpSocket and QProcess are examples of sequential devices.

You can use isSequential() to determine the type of device.

QIODevice emits readyRead() when new data is available for reading; for example, if new data has arrived on the network or if additional data is appended to a file that you are reading from. You can call bytesAvailable() to determine the number of bytes that are currently available for reading. It’s common to use bytesAvailable() together with the readyRead() signal when programming with asynchronous devices such as QTcpSocket, where fragments of data can arrive at arbitrary points in time. QIODevice emits the bytesWritten() signal every time a payload of data has been written to the device. Use bytesToWrite() to determine the current amount of data waiting to be written.

Certain subclasses of QIODevice, such as QTcpSocket and QProcess, are asynchronous. This means that I/O functions such as write() or read() always return immediately, while communication with the device itself may happen when control goes back to the event loop. QIODevice provides functions that allow you to force these operations to be performed immediately, while blocking the calling thread and without entering the event loop. This allows QIODevice subclasses to be used without an event loop, or in a separate thread:

• waitForReadyRead() – This function suspends operation in the calling thread until new data is available for reading.
• waitForBytesWritten() – This function suspends operation in the calling thread until one payload of data has been written to the device.
• waitFor….() – Subclasses of QIODevice implement blocking functions for device-specific operations. For example, QProcess has a function called waitForStarted() which suspends operation in the calling thread until the process has started.

Calling these functions from the main, GUI thread, may cause your user interface to freeze. Example:

QProcess gzip;
gzip.start("gzip", QStringList() << "-c");
if (!gzip.waitForStarted())
    return false;

gzip.write("uncompressed data");

QByteArray compressed;
while (gzip.waitForReadyRead())
    compressed += gzip.readAll();

By subclassing QIODevice, you can provide the same interface to your own I/O devices. Subclasses of QIODevice are only required to implement the protected readData() and writeData() functions. QIODevice uses these functions to implement all its convenience functions, such as getChar(), readLine() and write(). QIODevice also handles access control for you, so you can safely assume that the device is opened in write mode if writeData() is called.

Some subclasses, such as QFile and QTcpSocket, are implemented using a memory buffer for intermediate storing of data. This reduces the number of required device accessing calls, which are often very slow. Buffering makes functions like getChar() and putChar() fast, as they can operate on the memory buffer instead of directly on the device itself. Certain I/O operations, however, don’t work well with a buffer. For example, if several users open the same device and read it character by character, they may end up reading the same data when they meant to read a separate chunk each. For this reason, QIODevice allows you to bypass any buffering by passing the Unbuffered flag to open(). When subclassing QIODevice, remember to bypass any buffer you may use when the device is open in Unbuffered mode.

Some sequential devices support communicating via multiple channels. These channels represent separate streams of data that have the property of independently sequenced delivery. Once the device is opened, you can determine the number of channels by calling the readChannelCount() and writeChannelCount() functions. To switch between channels, call setCurrentReadChannel() and setCurrentWriteChannel(), respectively. QIODevice also provides additional signals to handle asynchronous communication on a per-channel basis.