Use:

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

public static String readInputStreamAsString(InputStream in)
    throws IOException {

    BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(in);
    ByteArrayOutputStream buf = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    int result = bis.read();
    while(result != -1) {
      byte b = (byte)result;
      buf.write(b);
      result = bis.read();
    }
    return buf.toString();
}

如果使用流读取器，请确保在结束时关闭流

private String readStream(InputStream iStream) throws IOException {
    //build a Stream Reader, it can read char by char
    InputStreamReader iStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(iStream);
    //build a buffered Reader, so that i can read whole line at once
    BufferedReader bReader = new BufferedReader(iStreamReader);
    String line = null;
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
    while((line = bReader.readLine()) != null) {  //Read till end
        builder.append(line);
        builder.append("\n"); // append new line to preserve lines
    }
    bReader.close();         //close all opened stuff
    iStreamReader.close();
    //iStream.close(); //EDIT: Let the creator of the stream close it!
                       // some readers may auto close the inner stream
    return builder.toString();
}

编辑：在JDK7+上，可以使用trywithresources构造。

/**
 * Reads the stream into a string
 * @param iStream the input stream
 * @return the string read from the stream
 * @throws IOException when an IO error occurs
 */
private String readStream(InputStream iStream) throws IOException {

    //Buffered reader allows us to read line by line
    try (BufferedReader bReader =
                 new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(iStream))){
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        String line;
        while((line = bReader.readLine()) != null) {  //Read till end
            builder.append(line);
            builder.append("\n"); // append new line to preserve lines
        }
        return builder.toString();
    }
}

使用java 9中支持的java.io.InputStream.transferTo（OutputStream）和ByteArrayOutputStream.toString（String），该字符串采用字符集名称：

public static String gobble(InputStream in, String charsetName) throws IOException {
    ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
    in.transferTo(bos);
    return bos.toString(charsetName);
}

public String read(InputStream in) throws IOException {
    try (BufferedReader buffer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in))) {
        return buffer.lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n"));
    }
}

快速简便：

String result = (String)new ObjectInputStream( inputStream ).readObject();

  InputStream IS=new URL("http://www.petrol.si/api/gas_prices.json").openStream();   

  ByteArrayOutputStream BAOS=new ByteArrayOutputStream();
  IOUtils.copy(IS, BAOS);
  String d= new String(BAOS.toByteArray(),"UTF-8");           

System.out.println(d);