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Simple Java I/O: General Principles

This document discusses Java I/O and provides examples of opening, using, and closing streams to read from and write to files. It introduces the LineReader and LineWriter classes that simplify reading and writing lines of text from files by handling opening, closing, and exception handling for the streams. The LineReader constructor creates a FileReader and BufferedReader to read lines from a file, and LineWriter uses a PrintWriter to write lines to a file.

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Suvadeep Bhattacharjee
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© © All Rights Reserved
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28 views

Simple Java I/O: General Principles

This document discusses Java I/O and provides examples of opening, using, and closing streams to read from and write to files. It introduces the LineReader and LineWriter classes that simplify reading and writing lines of text from files by handling opening, closing, and exception handling for the streams. The LineReader constructor creates a FileReader and BufferedReader to read lines from a file, and LineWriter uses a PrintWriter to write lines to a file.

Uploaded by

Suvadeep Bhattacharjee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 26

Simple Java I/O

Part I
General Principles

Jan 10, 2022


Prologue
“They say you can hold seven plus or minus two pieces of
information in your mind. I can’t remember how to open
files in Java. I’ve written chapters on it. I’ve done it a
bunch of times, but it’s too many steps. And when I
actually analyze it, I realize these are just silly design
decisions that they made. Even if they insisted on using
the Decorator pattern in java.io, they should have had
a convenience constructor for opening files simply.
Because we open files all the time, but nobody can
remember how. It is too much information to hold in
your mind.”
—Bruce Eckel, http://www.artima.com/intv/aboutme2.html

2
Streams

 All modern I/O is stream-based


 A stream is a connection to a source of data or to a
destination for data (sometimes both)
 An input stream may be associated with the keyboard
 An input stream or an output stream may be
associated with a file
 Different streams have different characteristics:
 A file has a definite length, and therefore an end
 Keyboard input has no specific end

3
How to do I/O
import java.io.*;

 Open the stream


 Use the stream (read, write, or both)
 Close the stream

4
open
use
Why Java I/O is hard close

 Java I/O is very powerful, with an overwhelming


number of options
 Any given kind of I/O is not particularly difficult
 The trick is to find your way through the maze of
possibilities

5
open
use
Opening a stream close

 There is data external to your program that you want to


get, or you want to put data somewhere outside your
program
 When you open a stream, you are making a connection
to that external place
 Once the connection is made, you forget about the
external place and just use the stream

6
open
use
Example of opening a stream close

 A FileReader is a used to connect to a file that will be


used for input:
FileReader fileReader =
new FileReader(fileName);
 The fileName specifies where the (external) file is to be
found
 You never use fileName again; instead, you use
fileReader

7
open
use
Using a stream close

 Some streams can be used only for input, others only


for output, still others for both
 Using a stream means doing input from it or output to it
 But it’s not usually that simple--you need to manipulate
the data in some way as it comes in or goes out

8
open
use
Example of using a stream close

int charAsInt;
charAsInt = fileReader.read( );

 The fileReader.read() method reads one character and


returns it as an integer, or -1 if there are no more characters
to read
 The meaning of the integer depends on the file encoding
(ASCII, Unicode, other)
 You can cast from int to char:
char ch = (char)fileReader.read( );
 FileReaderExample1.java

9
open
use
Manipulating the input data close

 Reading characters as integers isn’t usually what you


want to do
 A BufferedReader will convert integers to characters;
it can also read whole lines
 The constructor for BufferedReader takes a
FileReader parameter:
BufferedReader bufferedReader =
new BufferedReader(fileReader);

10
open
use
Reading lines close

String s;
s = bufferedReader.readLine( );

 A BufferedReader will return null if there is


nothing more to read
 FileReaderExample2.java

11
open
use
Closing close

 A stream is an expensive resource


 There is a limit on the number of streams that you can
have open at one time
 You should not have more than one stream open on
the same file
 You must close a stream before you can open it again
 Always close your streams!

 Java will normally close your streams for you when


your program ends, but it isn’t good style to depend on
this
12
Simple Java I/O

Part II
LineReader and LineWriter

Jan 10, 2022


Text files

 Text (.txt) files are the simplest kind of files


 Text files can be used by many different programs
 Formatted text files (such as .doc files) also contain
binary formatting information
 Only programs that “know the secret code” can
make sense of formatted text files
 Compilers, in general, work only with text

14
My LineReader class

class LineReader {
BufferedReader bufferedReader;

LineReader(String fileName) {...}

String readLine( ) {...}

void close( ) {...}


}

15
Basics of the LineReader constructor
 Create a FileReader for the named file:
FileReader fileReader =
new FileReader(fileName);

 Use it as input to a BufferedReader:


BufferedReader bufferedReader =
new BufferedReader(fileReader);

 Use the BufferedReader; but first, we need to


catch possible Exceptions

16
The full LineReader constructor

LineReader(String fileName) {
FileReader fileReader = null;
try { fileReader = new FileReader(fileName); }
catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
System.err.println
("LineReader can’t find input file: " + fileName);
e.printStackTrace( );
}
bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);
}

17
readLine

String readLine( ) {
try {
return bufferedReader.readLine( );
}
catch(IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace( );
}
return null;
}

18
close

void close() {
try {
bufferedReader.close( );
}
catch(IOException e) { }
}

19
How did I figure that out?
 I wanted to read lines from a file
 I thought there might be a suitable readSomething method, so
I went to the API Index
 Note: Capital letters are all alphabetized before lowercase in the Index
 I found a readLine method in several classes; the most
promising was the BufferedReader class
 The constructor for BufferedReader takes a Reader as an
argument
 Reader is an abstract class, but it has several implementations,
including InputStreamReader
 FileReader is a subclass of InputStreamReader
 There is a constructor for FileReader that takes as its
argument a (String) file name
20
The LineWriter class

class LineWriter {
PrintWriter printWriter;

LineWriter(String fileName) {...}

void writeLine(String line) {...}

void close( ) {...}


}

21
The constructor for LineWriter
LineWriter(String fileName) {
try {
printWriter =
new PrintWriter(
new FileOutputStream(fileName), true);
}
catch(Exception e) {
System.err.println("LineWriter can’t " +
"use output file: " + fileName);
}
}
22
Flushing the buffer

 When you put information into a buffered output


stream, it goes into a buffer
 The buffer may or may not be written out right away
 If your program crashes, you may not know how far
it got before it crashed
 Flushing the buffer forces the information to be
written out

23
PrintWriter

 Buffers are automatically flushed when the program


ends normally
 Usually it is your responsibility to flush buffers if
the program does not end normally
 PrintWriter can do the flushing for you
public PrintWriter(OutputStream out,
boolean autoFlush)

24
writeLine

void writeLine(String line) {


printWriter.println(line);
}

25
close

void close( ) {
printWriter.flush( );
try {
printWriter.close( );
}
catch(Exception e) { }
}

26

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