Hopper

The hopper is a block which moves items into and out of containers. When placed, its output end will attach to the clicked block. If an item falls into the top of it, it will store it in its own internal inventory of five item slots. However, if the hopper's output is attached to (or pointing at) a container with inventory slots (like a chest, another hopper, Minecart with Chest or a Minecart with Hopper), it will transfer items from its inventory to the inventory of the attached block (or cart) at a rate of 2.5 items per second (8 game ticks, 4 Redstone ticks or 0.4 seconds per item). The hopper will also transfer items from the inventory of a container placed directly above it into its own inventory at the same rate. Even if the hopper is drawing items from an inventory above it, and depositing it into another attached inventory, it will still transfer from the source inventory to the destination inventory at 2.5 items per second. When powered by redstone, the hopper won't take items from the inventories of blocks directly above it, output items into an attached inventory, suck up items from the environment or allow other hoppers to input items into it or take items from it. This is commonly referred to as the hopper being 'disabled'.

Behavior
Hoppers cannot be moved by pistons. Applying a redstone signal will stop the hopper from pushing out items, and they will not pull in new items (although another hopper may still push items into it). Despite not appearing as a solid block, attached blocks such as rails, levers, and redstone dust can be placed on top of hoppers.

When a hopper is connected to the side of an object, a chest for this example, and there is another hopper directly underneath the first hopper, the bottom hopper has a higher priority. Whenever the hopper is outputting, an item in the first nonempty slot will be sent to the bottom hopper, and at the same time, another item (if there is any) from the first among the remaining nonempty slot will be sent to the chest. If you put a stack of items in the hopper, it will be divided evenly between the bottom hopper and the chest unless it is an odd number in which case the bottom hopper will get one more than the chest. If the hopper is initially empty and is taking input from another hopper sideways, all the items will go into the bottom hopper. If instead the hopper is being fed by another hopper above, then the items will be split evenly between the bottom hopper and the chest.

A hopper can suck in item entities from above it, even if such an item is only 'flying through' that block, or items sitting on a block which is not full height (slabs, soul sand, etc.) immediately above the hopper. It will not suck up items sitting on a full block above it, however a Minecart with hopper can.

Testing with Comparators
If a hopper is the input to a redstone comparator, the comparator will output a redstone signal whenever there are any items stored inside the hopper. An empty hopper produces a power output of 0, a single item in a hopper produces a power level of at least 1, and the power level will increase depending on how you fill the 5 stacks of the Hopper (see Redstone Comparator for precise values) to a maximum power level of 15 at 5 full stacks.

Whether a comparator will activate when a hopper is simply transferring items from its input to its output depends on its configuration. For example, if three hoppers are arranged vertically feeding into each other, so that they are both pulling items from the hopper above and pushing items into the hopper below, a comparator off the middle hopper will activate; but if the middle hopper is faced to the side and powered, so that items are moving through it only because the hoppers above and below are pushing and pulling items into and out of it, a comparator off the middle hopper will not activate.

Interactions
Hoppers can remove items from and place items into the following:
 * Brewing Stands
 * Hoppers above the brewing stand will fill the ingredient slot, while hoppers to the side will fill the potion slots. Unlike furnaces, a hopper placed under a brewing stand will empty the brewing stand immediately, whether the potions are complete or not.


 * Chests
 * Large chests are treated as a single unit; one hopper placed on a large chest will fill up the whole chest.
 * Hoppers can only remove items from or place items into a chest if it can be opened.


 * Dispensers / Droppers
 * Items can be removed from as well as placed in dispensers/droppers.


 * Ender Chests
 * Hoppers do not interact with Ender chests. They will not push items into them or pull items out of them.


 * Furnaces
 * Items fed to the top of a furnace will fill the ore slot, items fed from any side will fill the fuel slot, and hoppers under the furnace will only take finished products (and emptied buckets from using lava as fuel). A hopper removing items from a furnace will not yield experience points.


 * Hoppers
 * Hoppers both pull items from containers above them, and push items to containers they are facing (including other hoppers). Thus a hopper above a hopper will both push items into the hopper below and have items pulled from it by the hopper below. To stop item transfer in a vertical stack, two adjacent hoppers in a column must be deactivated so that the top hopper isn't pushing down and the bottom hopper isn't pulling from above. When two hoppers are laid horizontally, only one hopper needs to be deactivated because the hoppers can only push, not pull. Similarly, when a horizontal hopper is stacked above another hopper, vertical transfer between these two hoppers only can be interrupted by deactivating the hopper below.


 * Minecarts with Chest / Hopper
 * Hoppers will fill minecarts with chests or hoppers if they are pointing at them and are not separated by another block. Hoppers can also take items from minecarts above them; rails can be placed directly on top of hoppers by aiming at a nearby block or holding the sneak key (default ), to make unloading stations. A hopper will not unload a minecart which is on a Detector Rail above the hopper, because the detector rail will power the hopper.


 * Trapped Chests
 * Identical to chests (see above), except that interaction is blocked while the chest is open, as it emits a redstone pulse and powers the hopper.

Connecting

 * A hopper will connect to the block at which you point, and only that block (does not automatically connect to others).
 * If you destroy the block to which the hopper was connected, it stays pointing to the original location; useful for transferring into minecarts via their sides.
 * To get a hopper to connect to a block with an inventory, sneak and click the block.
 * You can deactivate a hopper with a redstone signal, but note that another (active/unpowered) hopper beneath it can still take items from it.
 * If you place a hopper by clicking on the bottom face of the block, the hopper will not point up, but down instead, because you can't input upwards. This can be solved by using a Minecart with a Hopper and sending it up along a rail, or powering a Dropper with a clock circuit.
 * When using hoppers to remove smelted items from a furnace, you aren't granted experience.

Trivia

 * A real-life hopper is a type of chute used in industrial processes that incorporates a limited storage capacity.
 * Chickens can easily become stuck inside hoppers, and once inside are difficult to interact with, but still produce eggs. A hopper filled with chickens and attached to a dispenser with a 5-clock results in a compact automatic chicken machine.
 * Hoppers can easily be used to funnel smeltable items and fuel into a singular furnace. Just attach hoppers to the top, side, and bottom of the furnace with a chest at the input of the top and side and one at the output of the bottom. Any fuel goes in the side, smeltables go in the top, and products come out of the bottom.
 * Carpets can be placed on top of hoppers to create a floor that removes dropped items.
 * If a shot arrow is stuck in the top of a hopper, the hopper will play the sound of an arrow landing in a block whenever it is powered.
 * As of yet, the hopper does not exist in the Xbox 360 edition.
 * You can make an automatic harvester when a hopper is attached to a furnace. This does not work with brewing stands.