注意：这可能不是个好主意。此方法使用递归，因此将非常快地命中StackOverflowError：

public String read (InputStream is) {
    byte next = is.read();
    return next == -1 ? "" : next + read(is); // Recursive part: reads next byte recursively
}

JDK中最简单的方法是使用以下代码片段。

String convertToString(InputStream in){
    String resource = new Scanner(in).useDelimiter("\\Z").next();
    return resource;
}

如果不能使用Commons IO（FileUtils/IOUtils/CopyUtils），下面是一个使用BufferedReader逐行读取文件的示例：

public class StringFromFile {
    public static void main(String[] args) /*throws UnsupportedEncodingException*/ {
        InputStream is = StringFromFile.class.getResourceAsStream("file.txt");
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is/*, "UTF-8"*/));
        final int CHARS_PER_PAGE = 5000; //counting spaces
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(CHARS_PER_PAGE);
        try {
            for(String line=br.readLine(); line!=null; line=br.readLine()) {
                builder.append(line);
                builder.append('\n');
            }
        } 
        catch (IOException ignore) { }

        String text = builder.toString();
        System.out.println(text);
    }
}

或者，如果你想要原始速度，我会根据Paul de Vrieze的建议（避免使用StringWriter（内部使用StringBuffer））提出一个变体：

public class StringFromFileFast {
    public static void main(String[] args) /*throws UnsupportedEncodingException*/ {
        InputStream is = StringFromFileFast.class.getResourceAsStream("file.txt");
        InputStreamReader input = new InputStreamReader(is/*, "UTF-8"*/);
        final int CHARS_PER_PAGE = 5000; //counting spaces
        final char[] buffer = new char[CHARS_PER_PAGE];
        StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder(CHARS_PER_PAGE);
        try {
            for(int read = input.read(buffer, 0, buffer.length);
                    read != -1;
                    read = input.read(buffer, 0, buffer.length)) {
                output.append(buffer, 0, read);
            }
        } catch (IOException ignore) { }

        String text = output.toString();
        System.out.println(text);
    }
}

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();
    }
}

基于已接受的Apache Commons答案的第二部分，但在始终关闭流的情况下填补了一个小缺口：

    String theString;
    try {
        theString = IOUtils.toString(inputStream, encoding);
    } finally {
        IOUtils.closeQuietly(inputStream);
    }

此外，您还可以从指定的资源路径获取InputStream：

public static InputStream getResourceAsStream(String path)
{
    InputStream myiInputStream = ClassName.class.getResourceAsStream(path);
    if (null == myiInputStream)
    {
        mylogger.info("Can't find path = ", path);
    }

    return myiInputStream;
}

要从特定路径获取InputStream，请执行以下操作：

public static URL getResource(String path)
{
    URL myURL = ClassName.class.getResource(path);
    if (null == myURL)
    {
        mylogger.info("Can't find resource path = ", path);
    }
    return myURL;
}