这只是一个概念，另一个层次的抽象，让你的生活更容易。它们都有共同的接口，这意味着你可以以类似管道的方式组合它们。例如，编码到base64，然后压缩，然后将其写入磁盘，所有这些都在一行中!

除了上面提到的东西，还有一种不同类型的流——在函数式编程语言(如Scheme或Haskell)中定义的流——一种可能无限的数据结构，由一些函数按需生成。

流的目的是在您和后台存储之间提供一个抽象层。因此，使用流的给定代码块不需要关心后台存储是磁盘文件、内存等等…

我长话短说，我刚才漏掉了这个词:

流是通常存储在包含任何类型数据的缓冲区中的队列。

(现在，既然我们都知道队列是什么，就没有必要进一步解释了。)

之所以选择“流”这个词，是因为它(在现实生活中)与我们使用它时想要传达的意思非常相似。

Start thinking about the analogy to a water stream. You receive a continuous flow of data, just like water continuously flows in a river. You don't necessarily know where the data is coming from, and most often you don't need to; be it from a file, a socket, or any other source, it doesn't (shouldn't) really matter. This is very similar to receiving a stream of water, whereby you don't need to know where it is coming from; be it from a lake, a fountain, or any other source, it doesn't (shouldn't) really matter. source

我认为您需要考虑后备存储本身通常只是另一种抽象。内存流很容易理解，但是文件完全不同，这取决于您使用的文件系统，而不考虑您使用的是什么硬盘驱动器。事实上，并不是所有的流都位于备份存储的顶部:网络流基本上就是流。

流的意义在于我们将注意力限制在重要的事情上。通过标准抽象，我们可以执行公共操作。例如，即使您今天不想在文件或HTTP响应中搜索url，也不意味着您明天就不想这样做了。

Streams were originally conceived when memory was tiny compared to storage. Just reading a C file could be a significant load. Minimizing the memory footprint was extremely important. Hence, an abstraction in which very little needed to be loaded was very useful. Today, it is equally useful when performing network communication and, it turns out, rarely that restrictive when we deal with files. The ability to transparently add things like buffering in a general fashion makes it even more useful.