Interface IntStream

Method Details

• filter

  IntStream filter(IntPredicate predicate)

  Returns a stream consisting of the elements of this stream that match the given predicate.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Parameters:

  predicate - a non-interfering, stateless predicate to apply to each element to determine if it should be included

  Returns:

  the new stream

• map

  IntStream map(IntUnaryOperator mapper)

  Returns a stream consisting of the results of applying the given function to the elements of this stream.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Parameters:

  mapper - a non-interfering, stateless function to apply to each element

  Returns:

  the new stream

• mapToObj

  <U> Stream<U> mapToObj(IntFunction<? extends U> mapper)

  Returns an object-valued Stream consisting of the results of applying the given function to the elements of this stream.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Type Parameters:

  U - the element type of the new stream

  Parameters:

  mapper - a non-interfering, stateless function to apply to each element

  Returns:

  the new stream

• mapToLong

  LongStream mapToLong(IntToLongFunction mapper)

  Returns a LongStream consisting of the results of applying the given function to the elements of this stream.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Parameters:

  mapper - a non-interfering, stateless function to apply to each element

  Returns:

  the new stream

• mapToDouble

  DoubleStream mapToDouble(IntToDoubleFunction mapper)

  Returns a DoubleStream consisting of the results of applying the given function to the elements of this stream.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Parameters:

  mapper - a non-interfering, stateless function to apply to each element

  Returns:

  the new stream

• flatMap

  IntStream flatMap(IntFunction<? extends IntStream> mapper)

  Returns a stream consisting of the results of replacing each element of this stream with the contents of a mapped stream produced by applying the provided mapping function to each element. Each mapped stream is closed after its contents have been placed into this stream. (If a mapped stream is null an empty stream is used, instead.)

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Parameters:

  mapper - a non-interfering, stateless function to apply to each element which produces an IntStream of new values

  Returns:

  the new stream

  See Also:

  • Stream.flatMap(Function)

• mapMulti

  default IntStream mapMulti(IntStream.IntMapMultiConsumer mapper)

  Returns a stream consisting of the results of replacing each element of this stream with multiple elements, specifically zero or more elements. Replacement is performed by applying the provided mapping function to each element in conjunction with a consumer argument that accepts replacement elements. The mapping function calls the consumer zero or more times to provide the replacement elements.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  If the consumer argument is used outside the scope of its application to the mapping function, the results are undefined.

  Implementation Requirements:

  The default implementation invokes flatMap on this stream, passing a function that behaves as follows. First, it calls the mapper function with an IntConsumer that accumulates replacement elements into a newly created internal buffer. When the mapper function returns, it creates an IntStream from the internal buffer. Finally, it returns this stream to flatMap.

  Parameters:

  mapper - a non-interfering, stateless function that generates replacement elements

  Returns:

  the new stream

  Since:

  16

  See Also:

  • Stream.mapMulti

• distinct

  IntStream distinct()

  Returns a stream consisting of the distinct elements of this stream.

  This is a stateful intermediate operation.

  Returns:

  the new stream

• sorted

  IntStream sorted()

  Returns a stream consisting of the elements of this stream in sorted order.

  This is a stateful intermediate operation.

  Returns:

  the new stream

• peek

  IntStream peek(IntConsumer action)

  Returns a stream consisting of the elements of this stream, additionally performing the provided action on each element as elements are consumed from the resulting stream.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  For parallel stream pipelines, the action may be called at whatever time and in whatever thread the element is made available by the upstream operation. If the action modifies shared state, it is responsible for providing the required synchronization.

  API Note:

  This method exists mainly to support debugging, where you want to see the elements as they flow past a certain point in a pipeline:

  
       IntStream.of(1, 2, 3, 4)
           .filter(e -> e > 2)
           .peek(e -> System.out.println("Filtered value: " + e))
           .map(e -> e * e)
           .peek(e -> System.out.println("Mapped value: " + e))
           .sum();
   

  In cases where the stream implementation is able to optimize away the production of some or all the elements (such as with short-circuiting operations like findFirst, or in the example described in count()), the action will not be invoked for those elements.

  Parameters:

  action - a non-interfering action to perform on the elements as they are consumed from the stream

  Returns:

  the new stream

• limit

  IntStream limit(long maxSize)

  Returns a stream consisting of the elements of this stream, truncated to be no longer than maxSize in length.

  This is a short-circuiting stateful intermediate operation.

  API Note:

  While limit() is generally a cheap operation on sequential stream pipelines, it can be quite expensive on ordered parallel pipelines, especially for large values of maxSize, since limit(n) is constrained to return not just any n elements, but the first n elements in the encounter order. Using an unordered stream source (such as generate(IntSupplier)) or removing the ordering constraint with BaseStream.unordered() may result in significant speedups of limit() in parallel pipelines, if the semantics of your situation permit. If consistency with encounter order is required, and you are experiencing poor performance or memory utilization with limit() in parallel pipelines, switching to sequential execution with BaseStream.sequential() may improve performance.

  Parameters:

  maxSize - the number of elements the stream should be limited to

  Returns:

  the new stream

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException - if maxSize is negative

• skip

  IntStream skip(long n)

  Returns a stream consisting of the remaining elements of this stream after discarding the first n elements of the stream. If this stream contains fewer than n elements then an empty stream will be returned.

  This is a stateful intermediate operation.

  API Note:

  While skip() is generally a cheap operation on sequential stream pipelines, it can be quite expensive on ordered parallel pipelines, especially for large values of n, since skip(n) is constrained to skip not just any n elements, but the first n elements in the encounter order. Using an unordered stream source (such as generate(IntSupplier)) or removing the ordering constraint with BaseStream.unordered() may result in significant speedups of skip() in parallel pipelines, if the semantics of your situation permit. If consistency with encounter order is required, and you are experiencing poor performance or memory utilization with skip() in parallel pipelines, switching to sequential execution with BaseStream.sequential() may improve performance.

  Parameters:

  n - the number of leading elements to skip

  Returns:

  the new stream

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException - if n is negative

• takeWhile

  default IntStream takeWhile(IntPredicate predicate)

  Returns, if this stream is ordered, a stream consisting of the longest prefix of elements taken from this stream that match the given predicate. Otherwise returns, if this stream is unordered, a stream consisting of a subset of elements taken from this stream that match the given predicate.

  If this stream is ordered then the longest prefix is a contiguous sequence of elements of this stream that match the given predicate. The first element of the sequence is the first element of this stream, and the element immediately following the last element of the sequence does not match the given predicate.

  If this stream is unordered, and some (but not all) elements of this stream match the given predicate, then the behavior of this operation is nondeterministic; it is free to take any subset of matching elements (which includes the empty set).

  Independent of whether this stream is ordered or unordered if all elements of this stream match the given predicate then this operation takes all elements (the result is the same as the input), or if no elements of the stream match the given predicate then no elements are taken (the result is an empty stream).

  This is a short-circuiting stateful intermediate operation.

  API Note:

  While takeWhile() is generally a cheap operation on sequential stream pipelines, it can be quite expensive on ordered parallel pipelines, since the operation is constrained to return not just any valid prefix, but the longest prefix of elements in the encounter order. Using an unordered stream source (such as generate(IntSupplier)) or removing the ordering constraint with BaseStream.unordered() may result in significant speedups of takeWhile() in parallel pipelines, if the semantics of your situation permit. If consistency with encounter order is required, and you are experiencing poor performance or memory utilization with takeWhile() in parallel pipelines, switching to sequential execution with BaseStream.sequential() may improve performance.

  Implementation Requirements:

  The default implementation obtains the spliterator of this stream, wraps that spliterator so as to support the semantics of this operation on traversal, and returns a new stream associated with the wrapped spliterator. The returned stream preserves the execution characteristics of this stream (namely parallel or sequential execution as per BaseStream.isParallel()) but the wrapped spliterator may choose to not support splitting. When the returned stream is closed, the close handlers for both the returned and this stream are invoked.

  Parameters:

  predicate - a non-interfering, stateless predicate to apply to elements to determine the longest prefix of elements.

  Returns:

  the new stream

  Since:

  9

• dropWhile

  default IntStream dropWhile(IntPredicate predicate)

  Returns, if this stream is ordered, a stream consisting of the remaining elements of this stream after dropping the longest prefix of elements that match the given predicate. Otherwise returns, if this stream is unordered, a stream consisting of the remaining elements of this stream after dropping a subset of elements that match the given predicate.

  If this stream is ordered then the longest prefix is a contiguous sequence of elements of this stream that match the given predicate. The first element of the sequence is the first element of this stream, and the element immediately following the last element of the sequence does not match the given predicate.

  If this stream is unordered, and some (but not all) elements of this stream match the given predicate, then the behavior of this operation is nondeterministic; it is free to drop any subset of matching elements (which includes the empty set).

  Independent of whether this stream is ordered or unordered if all elements of this stream match the given predicate then this operation drops all elements (the result is an empty stream), or if no elements of the stream match the given predicate then no elements are dropped (the result is the same as the input).

  This is a stateful intermediate operation.

  API Note:

  While dropWhile() is generally a cheap operation on sequential stream pipelines, it can be quite expensive on ordered parallel pipelines, since the operation is constrained to return not just any valid prefix, but the longest prefix of elements in the encounter order. Using an unordered stream source (such as generate(IntSupplier)) or removing the ordering constraint with BaseStream.unordered() may result in significant speedups of dropWhile() in parallel pipelines, if the semantics of your situation permit. If consistency with encounter order is required, and you are experiencing poor performance or memory utilization with dropWhile() in parallel pipelines, switching to sequential execution with BaseStream.sequential() may improve performance.

  Implementation Requirements:

  The default implementation obtains the spliterator of this stream, wraps that spliterator so as to support the semantics of this operation on traversal, and returns a new stream associated with the wrapped spliterator. The returned stream preserves the execution characteristics of this stream (namely parallel or sequential execution as per BaseStream.isParallel()) but the wrapped spliterator may choose to not support splitting. When the returned stream is closed, the close handlers for both the returned and this stream are invoked.

  Parameters:

  predicate - a non-interfering, stateless predicate to apply to elements to determine the longest prefix of elements.

  Returns:

  the new stream

  Since:

  9

• forEach

  void forEach(IntConsumer action)

  Performs an action for each element of this stream.

  This is a terminal operation.

  For parallel stream pipelines, this operation does not guarantee to respect the encounter order of the stream, as doing so would sacrifice the benefit of parallelism. For any given element, the action may be performed at whatever time and in whatever thread the library chooses. If the action accesses shared state, it is responsible for providing the required synchronization.

  Parameters:

  action - a non-interfering action to perform on the elements

• forEachOrdered

  void forEachOrdered(IntConsumer action)

  Performs an action for each element of this stream, guaranteeing that each element is processed in encounter order for streams that have a defined encounter order.

  This is a terminal operation.

  Parameters:

  action - a non-interfering action to perform on the elements

  See Also:

  • forEach(IntConsumer)

• toArray

  int[] toArray()

  Returns an array containing the elements of this stream.

  This is a terminal operation.

  Returns:

  an array containing the elements of this stream

• reduce

  int reduce(int identity, IntBinaryOperator op)

  Performs a reduction on the elements of this stream, using the provided identity value and an associative accumulation function, and returns the reduced value. This is equivalent to:

  
       int result = identity;
       for (int element : this stream)
           result = accumulator.applyAsInt(result, element)
       return result;
   

  but is not constrained to execute sequentially.

  The identity value must be an identity for the accumulator function. This means that for all x, accumulator.apply(identity, x) is equal to x. The accumulator function must be an associative function.

  This is a terminal operation.

  API Note:

  Sum, min and max are all special cases of reduction that can be expressed using this method. For example, summing a stream can be expressed as:

  
       int sum = integers.reduce(0, (a, b) -> a+b);
   

  or more compactly:

  
       int sum = integers.reduce(0, Integer::sum);
   

  While this may seem a more roundabout way to perform an aggregation compared to simply mutating a running total in a loop, reduction operations parallelize more gracefully, without needing additional synchronization and with greatly reduced risk of data races.

  Parameters:

  identity - the identity value for the accumulating function

  op - an associative, non-interfering, stateless function for combining two values

  Returns:

  the result of the reduction

  See Also:

  • sum()
  • min()
  • max()
  • average()

• reduce

  OptionalInt reduce(IntBinaryOperator op)

  Performs a reduction on the elements of this stream, using an associative accumulation function, and returns an OptionalInt describing the reduced value, if any. This is equivalent to:

  
       boolean foundAny = false;
       int result = null;
       for (int element : this stream) {
           if (!foundAny) {
               foundAny = true;
               result = element;
           }
           else
               result = accumulator.applyAsInt(result, element);
       }
       return foundAny ? OptionalInt.of(result) : OptionalInt.empty();
   

  but is not constrained to execute sequentially.

  The accumulator function must be an associative function.

  This is a terminal operation.

  Parameters:

  op - an associative, non-interfering, stateless function for combining two values

  Returns:

  the result of the reduction

  See Also:

  • reduce(int, IntBinaryOperator)

• collect

  <R> R collect(Supplier<R> supplier, ObjIntConsumer<R> accumulator, BiConsumer<R,R> combiner)

  Performs a mutable reduction operation on the elements of this stream. A mutable reduction is one in which the reduced value is a mutable result container, such as an ArrayList, and elements are incorporated by updating the state of the result rather than by replacing the result. This produces a result equivalent to:

  
       R result = supplier.get();
       for (int element : this stream)
           accumulator.accept(result, element);
       return result;
   

  Like reduce(int, IntBinaryOperator), collect operations can be parallelized without requiring additional synchronization.

  This is a terminal operation.

  Type Parameters:

  R - the type of the mutable result container

  Parameters:

  supplier - a function that creates a new mutable result container. For a parallel execution, this function may be called multiple times and must return a fresh value each time.

  accumulator - an associative, non-interfering, stateless function that must fold an element into a result container.

  combiner - an associative, non-interfering, stateless function that accepts two partial result containers and merges them, which must be compatible with the accumulator function. The combiner function must fold the elements from the second result container into the first result container.

  Returns:

  the result of the reduction

  See Also:

  • Stream.collect(Supplier, BiConsumer, BiConsumer)

• sum

  int sum()

  Returns the sum of elements in this stream. This is a special case of a reduction and is equivalent to:

  
       return reduce(0, Integer::sum);
   

  This is a terminal operation.

  Returns:

  the sum of elements in this stream

• min

  OptionalInt min()

  Returns an OptionalInt describing the minimum element of this stream, or an empty optional if this stream is empty. This is a special case of a reduction and is equivalent to:

  
       return reduce(Integer::min);
   

  This is a terminal operation.

  Returns:

  an OptionalInt containing the minimum element of this stream, or an empty OptionalInt if the stream is empty

• max

  OptionalInt max()

  Returns an OptionalInt describing the maximum element of this stream, or an empty optional if this stream is empty. This is a special case of a reduction and is equivalent to:

  
       return reduce(Integer::max);
   

  This is a terminal operation.

  Returns:

  an OptionalInt containing the maximum element of this stream, or an empty OptionalInt if the stream is empty

• count

  long count()

  Returns the count of elements in this stream. This is a special case of a reduction and is equivalent to:

  
       return mapToLong(e -> 1L).sum();
   

  This is a terminal operation.

  API Note:

  An implementation may choose to not execute the stream pipeline (either sequentially or in parallel) if it is capable of computing the count directly from the stream source. In such cases no source elements will be traversed and no intermediate operations will be evaluated. Behavioral parameters with side-effects, which are strongly discouraged except for harmless cases such as debugging, may be affected. For example, consider the following stream:

  
       IntStream s = IntStream.of(1, 2, 3, 4);
       long count = s.peek(System.out::println).count();
   

  The number of elements covered by the stream source is known and the intermediate operation, peek, does not inject into or remove elements from the stream (as may be the case for flatMap or filter operations). Thus the count is 4 and there is no need to execute the pipeline and, as a side-effect, print out the elements.

  Returns:

  the count of elements in this stream

• average

  OptionalDouble average()

  Returns an OptionalDouble describing the arithmetic mean of elements of this stream, or an empty optional if this stream is empty. This is a special case of a reduction.

  This is a terminal operation.

  Returns:

  an OptionalDouble containing the average element of this stream, or an empty optional if the stream is empty

• summaryStatistics

  IntSummaryStatistics summaryStatistics()

  Returns an IntSummaryStatistics describing various summary data about the elements of this stream. This is a special case of a reduction.

  This is a terminal operation.

  Returns:

  an IntSummaryStatistics describing various summary data about the elements of this stream

• anyMatch

  boolean anyMatch(IntPredicate predicate)

  Returns whether any elements of this stream match the provided predicate. May not evaluate the predicate on all elements if not necessary for determining the result. If the stream is empty then false is returned and the predicate is not evaluated.

  This is a short-circuiting terminal operation.

  API Note:

  This method evaluates the existential quantification of the predicate over the elements of the stream (for some x P(x)).

  Parameters:

  predicate - a non-interfering, stateless predicate to apply to elements of this stream

  Returns:

  true if any elements of the stream match the provided predicate, otherwise false

• allMatch

  boolean allMatch(IntPredicate predicate)

  Returns whether all elements of this stream match the provided predicate. May not evaluate the predicate on all elements if not necessary for determining the result. If the stream is empty then true is returned and the predicate is not evaluated.

  This is a short-circuiting terminal operation.

  API Note:

  This method evaluates the universal quantification of the predicate over the elements of the stream (for all x P(x)). If the stream is empty, the quantification is said to be vacuously satisfied and is always true (regardless of P(x)).

  Parameters:

  predicate - a non-interfering, stateless predicate to apply to elements of this stream

  Returns:

  true if either all elements of the stream match the provided predicate or the stream is empty, otherwise false

• noneMatch

  boolean noneMatch(IntPredicate predicate)

  Returns whether no elements of this stream match the provided predicate. May not evaluate the predicate on all elements if not necessary for determining the result. If the stream is empty then true is returned and the predicate is not evaluated.

  This is a short-circuiting terminal operation.

  API Note:

  This method evaluates the universal quantification of the negated predicate over the elements of the stream (for all x ~P(x)). If the stream is empty, the quantification is said to be vacuously satisfied and is always true, regardless of P(x).

  Parameters:

  predicate - a non-interfering, stateless predicate to apply to elements of this stream

  Returns:

  true if either no elements of the stream match the provided predicate or the stream is empty, otherwise false

• findFirst

  OptionalInt findFirst()

  Returns an OptionalInt describing the first element of this stream, or an empty OptionalInt if the stream is empty. If the stream has no encounter order, then any element may be returned.

  This is a short-circuiting terminal operation.

  Returns:

  an OptionalInt describing the first element of this stream, or an empty OptionalInt if the stream is empty

• findAny

  OptionalInt findAny()

  Returns an OptionalInt describing some element of the stream, or an empty OptionalInt if the stream is empty.

  This is a short-circuiting terminal operation.

  The behavior of this operation is explicitly nondeterministic; it is free to select any element in the stream. This is to allow for maximal performance in parallel operations; the cost is that multiple invocations on the same source may not return the same result. (If a stable result is desired, use findFirst() instead.)

  Returns:

  an OptionalInt describing some element of this stream, or an empty OptionalInt if the stream is empty

  See Also:

  • findFirst()

• asLongStream

  LongStream asLongStream()

  Returns a LongStream consisting of the elements of this stream, converted to long.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Returns:

  a LongStream consisting of the elements of this stream, converted to long

• asDoubleStream

  DoubleStream asDoubleStream()

  Returns a DoubleStream consisting of the elements of this stream, converted to double.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Returns:

  a DoubleStream consisting of the elements of this stream, converted to double

• boxed

  Stream<Integer> boxed()

  Returns a Stream consisting of the elements of this stream, each boxed to an Integer.

  This is an intermediate operation.

  Returns:

  a Stream consistent of the elements of this stream, each boxed to an Integer

• builder

  static IntStream.Builder builder()

  Returns a builder for an IntStream.

  Returns:

  a stream builder

• empty

  static IntStream empty()

  Returns an empty sequential IntStream.

  Returns:

  an empty sequential stream

• of

  static IntStream of(int t)

  Returns a sequential IntStream containing a single element.

  Parameters:

  t - the single element

  Returns:

  a singleton sequential stream

• of

  static IntStream of(int... values)

  Returns a sequential ordered stream whose elements are the specified values.

  Parameters:

  values - the elements of the new stream

  Returns:

  the new stream

• iterate

  static IntStream iterate(int seed, IntUnaryOperator f)

  Returns an infinite sequential ordered IntStream produced by iterative application of a function f to an initial element seed, producing a Stream consisting of seed, f(seed), f(f(seed)), etc.

  The first element (position 0) in the IntStream will be the provided seed. For n > 0, the element at position n, will be the result of applying the function f to the element at position n - 1.

  The action of applying f for one element happens-before the action of applying f for subsequent elements. For any given element the action may be performed in whatever thread the library chooses.

  Parameters:

  seed - the initial element

  f - a function to be applied to the previous element to produce a new element

  Returns:

  a new sequential IntStream

• iterate

  static IntStream iterate(int seed, IntPredicate hasNext, IntUnaryOperator next)

  Returns a sequential ordered IntStream produced by iterative application of the given next function to an initial element, conditioned on satisfying the given hasNext predicate. The stream terminates as soon as the hasNext predicate returns false.

  IntStream.iterate should produce the same sequence of elements as produced by the corresponding for-loop:

  
       for (int index=seed; hasNext.test(index); index = next.applyAsInt(index)) {
           ...
       }
   

  The resulting sequence may be empty if the hasNext predicate does not hold on the seed value. Otherwise the first element will be the supplied seed value, the next element (if present) will be the result of applying the next function to the seed value, and so on iteratively until the hasNext predicate indicates that the stream should terminate.

  The action of applying the hasNext predicate to an element happens-before the action of applying the next function to that element. The action of applying the next function for one element happens-before the action of applying the hasNext predicate for subsequent elements. For any given element an action may be performed in whatever thread the library chooses.

  Parameters:

  seed - the initial element

  hasNext - a predicate to apply to elements to determine when the stream must terminate.

  next - a function to be applied to the previous element to produce a new element

  Returns:

  a new sequential IntStream

  Since:

  9

• generate

  static IntStream generate(IntSupplier s)

  Returns an infinite sequential unordered stream where each element is generated by the provided IntSupplier. This is suitable for generating constant streams, streams of random elements, etc.

  Parameters:

  s - the IntSupplier for generated elements

  Returns:

  a new infinite sequential unordered IntStream

• range

  static IntStream range(int startInclusive, int endExclusive)

  Returns a sequential ordered IntStream from startInclusive (inclusive) to endExclusive (exclusive) by an incremental step of 1.

  API Note:

  An equivalent sequence of increasing values can be produced sequentially using a for loop as follows:

  
       for (int i = startInclusive; i < endExclusive ; i++) { ... }
   

  Parameters:

  startInclusive - the (inclusive) initial value

  endExclusive - the exclusive upper bound

  Returns:

  a sequential IntStream for the range of int elements

• rangeClosed

  static IntStream rangeClosed(int startInclusive, int endInclusive)

  Returns a sequential ordered IntStream from startInclusive (inclusive) to endInclusive (inclusive) by an incremental step of 1.

  API Note:

  An equivalent sequence of increasing values can be produced sequentially using a for loop as follows:

  
       for (int i = startInclusive; i <= endInclusive ; i++) { ... }
   

  Parameters:

  startInclusive - the (inclusive) initial value

  endInclusive - the inclusive upper bound

  Returns:

  a sequential IntStream for the range of int elements

• concat

  static IntStream concat(IntStream a, IntStream b)

  Creates a lazily concatenated stream whose elements are all the elements of the first stream followed by all the elements of the second stream. The resulting stream is ordered if both of the input streams are ordered, and parallel if either of the input streams is parallel. When the resulting stream is closed, the close handlers for both input streams are invoked.

  This method operates on the two input streams and binds each stream to its source. As a result subsequent modifications to an input stream source may not be reflected in the concatenated stream result.

  API Note:

  To preserve optimization opportunities this method binds each stream to its source and accepts only two streams as parameters. For example, the exact size of the concatenated stream source can be computed if the exact size of each input stream source is known. To concatenate more streams without binding, or without nested calls to this method, try creating a stream of streams and flat-mapping with the identity function, for example:

  
       IntStream concat = Stream.of(s1, s2, s3, s4).flatMapToInt(s -> s);
   

  Implementation Note:

  Use caution when constructing streams from repeated concatenation. Accessing an element of a deeply concatenated stream can result in deep call chains, or even StackOverflowError.

  Parameters:

  a - the first stream

  b - the second stream

  Returns:

  the concatenation of the two input streams