这里或多或少有sampath的答案，清理了一点并表示为函数：

String streamToString(InputStream in) throws IOException {
  StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder();
  BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
  for(String line = br.readLine(); line != null; line = br.readLine()) 
    out.append(line);
  br.close();
  return out.toString();
}

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();
    }
}

这个很好，因为：

它可以安全地处理Charset。您可以控制读取缓冲区的大小。您可以设置生成器的长度，而不必是精确的值。不受库依赖关系的影响。适用于Java 7或更高版本。

怎么做？

public static String convertStreamToString(InputStream is) throws IOException {
   StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(2048); // Define a size if you have an idea of it.
   char[] read = new char[128]; // Your buffer size.
   try (InputStreamReader ir = new InputStreamReader(is, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
     for (int i; -1 != (i = ir.read(read)); sb.append(read, 0, i));
   }
   return sb.toString();
}

对于JDK 9

public static String inputStreamString(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
    try (inputStream) {
        return new String(inputStream.readAllBytes(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    }
}

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