Streams can be classified into two types:
1. text streams and
2. Binary streams
1.Text streams are interpreted, with a maximum length of 255 characters. With text streams, carriage return/line feed combinations are translated to the newline n character and vice versa.
2. Binary streams are uninterrupted and are treated one byte at a time with no translation of characters. a text stream would be used for reading and writing standard text files, printing output to the screen or printer, or receiving input from the keyboard. A binary text stream would typically be used for reading and writing binary files such as graphics or word processing documents, reading mouse input, or reading and writing to the modem.