How To Read A File In Java: Explaining All the Methods

Reading a Text File in Java Using BufferedReader

This method takes the file input as a character stream and it works best if you want to read a file line-by-line. The default buffer size is 8KB but it can be changed depending on the situation, but most of the time the default size is enough for performing the operations. BufferReader is a synchronized method for reading files, and it can safely perform operations using multiple threads. This method also reads large files efficiently. 

Attached below is an example of the code to help you understand the use of BufferedReader more clearly.

Here, first, create a ‘try to catch’ block to handle the exceptions, if any. After that, create a 000000file object which will contain the filename for which the content has to be read. 

The name of the file is provided by the getAbsoluteFile method. After that, create a BufferedReader object which is linked to the earlier FileReader object, which will fetch the file content.

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Reading a Text File in Java Using FileReader

The FileReader class in Java is a character-oriented class that is also used in File Handling. 

Two types of constructors can be used in the FileReader class:

• FileReader(String File) 

It gets the filename as a string instance. This is used to open the given file in “read mode”. If no file exists by the mentioned name, then it throws FileNotFoundException. 

• FileReader(File File)

This is the same as the above constructor, except that it gets the filename in “file instance”.

Below is an example that shows the usage of FileReader class.

The code above has used the FileReader(File File) constructor and it will throw the exception FileNotFoundException, if there is no file by the name of “file.txt”. 

int read() is used to return a character in its ASCII form and it returns -1 when the file reaches its end.

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Reading a Text File in Java Using Scanner

The scanner is a class in Java in java.util package that is used to parse primitive data types and strings using regular expressions. Using this class, you can read any text from an object that uses the Readable interface.

To read a text file using the Scanner class, create a Scanner that generates the scanned values from the specified file. An example is shown below using the try-with-resources block that automatically takes control of scanner.close() .

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Conclusion

With this tutorial, you would have gained a working understanding of how to read a file in Java. If you are looking to build a career in Software Development, Java is a vital programming language that you have to have as part of your skillset. 

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We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are looking forward to exploring other aspects of Java and Software Development. If you have any questions on this “How to read a file in Java” article, feel free to share them in the comments section of the article. Our subject-matter experts will review and respond to them at the earliest.