Java File I/O

[ibowtotux]

Greetings,
I'm kind of rusty with my java and I need some help with reading in values from a file. The file being read from is in the format:

string string int string string int

for each line. I'm lost on how to set this up and any help is always appreciated.

[Cabhan]

import java.io.*;

BufferedReader bfrRead = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("/home/user/temp/the_file"));

try
{
     while(bfrRead.open())
     {
          String theLine = bfrRead.readLine();

          // Do Stuff
     }

     bfrRead.close();
}

// Now catch the FileNotFoundException and IOException

Basically, we wrap the BufferedReader around the FileReader. FileReader takes either a String with the file's location or an instance of the File class.

Then, while lines are still there, we read them in, line by line. After all lines are read, we close that BufferedReader.

Make sure to catch your Exceptions. I'm 99% sure that only the two I named need to be caught.


And, of course, be sure to import java.io.*;


The 1.4.2 API is at:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/

If it helps

[Javasnob]

You might also want to use the java.util.StringTokenizer class to seperate the tokens on a line. (I'd recommend reading the API for it; it's quite useful)

[Cabhan]

Javasnob has a good idea.

Definitely check out the API. But as a brief overview:

StringTokenizer takes a String and separates it by whitespace into "Tokens". You can then manipulate the Tokens separately:

String theString = new String("a b c d e f");
StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(theString);

while(st.hasTokens())
{
    String theToken = st.nextToken();
    System.out.println(theToken);
}

Unrelated to that, but as I just remembered, remember that I/O is done as Strings. So even though you have a string string int string string int format, you will receive them all as Strings.

To change the Strings to ints, you'll need to do:

int theNum = Integer.parseInt(theStringWithIntValue);

That can throw a NumberFormatException however, be warned.

[ibowtotux]

Thank you for all your help. I've implemented your suggestions into my code and all is well with the exception of one: for

 while(bfrRead.open())

I get the error:

The method open() is undefined for the tyoe BufferedReader

[Cabhan]

Gadzooks!

It's actually

while(bfrRead.ready())

Oopsie.

[Javasnob]

I always liked doing this with BufferedReader:

BufferedReader reader = ...;
String line;
while((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
     ...
}

But that's just another suggestion to cut down on lines of code.

[scm]

I thought Java was supposed to be a good language. It certainly makes a meal of doing something that's trivial in a proper language like C.

[Javasnob]

J2SE 5.0 makes this easier, actually:

Scanner in = new Scanner(new FileInputStream(file));
while(in.hasNext()) {
     String str = in.next();
     // Process the string
}

[gagan_goku]

how about using perl regular expressions?