How to read from a file to an arraylist - java

i'm having some trouble with reading from a text file back and writing back to an array list. I was wondering if you could tell me where I'm going wrong? Thanks.
accountArrayList = new ArrayList<BankAccount>();
private void fileIn()
{
try
{
createTestAccounts();
//Scanner input = new Scanner(new FileReader(bankFile));
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "File: " + bankFile + " has been opened for importing");
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("bankFile.txt"));
String account = reader.readLine();
while(account !=null) {
accountArrayList.add(account); // - add a new account to the text file, but exception show that String cannot be converted to Bank Account
account = reader.readLine();
}
reader.close();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "not found");
}
}

You are adding a String, but the list.add method expects an object of type BankAccount.
You'll have to find a way to turn that String into an Object of that type , then add the latter. Maybe there is a fromString() factory method? Or a Constructor that takes an initialization - String ?
If there is a constructor then it should look like
accountArrayList.add(new BankAccount(account));

To read all lines you may use (if your file is in UTF-8):
List<String> allLines = Files.readAllLines("bankFile.txt", StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
But as it was mentioned in the other comments you will need to transform a String into a BankAccount

BankAccount ba = new BankAccount(account);
accountArrayList.add(ba);
You're going to need something like this...depending on what your BankAccount class is exactly.

Assuming you have a String constructor for BankAccount, something like this:
public BankAccount(String account) {
this.account = account;
}
You can use Apache commons-io and java 8 to get a one-liner!
List<BankAccount> accounts = FileUtils.readLines(new File(filename))
.stream().map(BankAccount::new).collect(Collectors.toList());

The arraylist expects an BankAccount object, instead you are reading from a file, so the arraylist should be String.
ArrayList<String> accountArrayList = new ArrayList<>();
For the while loop condition, personally, i always use, but you can do it like that too.
while((account = reader.readLine()) != null){
accountArrayList.add(account);
}

Related

How To Read A Specific Part Of A Line In A Text File In Java?

I have a text file in which I have written some information line by line like this:
name|Number|amount|PIN
How can I read back data In a way that (for example) I will be able to use just the "name" part in a method?
The sample code is shown in the image below.
in the beginning declare a List to collect the accounts:
import java.util.ArrayList;
...
public Account[] inReader() { //BTW: why do you pass an Account[] here?
ArrayList accountList = new ArrayList();
...
}
replace the for(String records : dataRecords) {...} with
String name = dataRecords[0];
String cardNumber = dataRecords[1];
int pin = Integer.parseInt(dataRecords[2]); //to convert the String back to int
double balance = Double.parseDouble(dataRecords[3]);
Account account = new Account(name, cardNumber, pin, balance);
accountList.add(account);
because you already proceed record by record (while ((line = br.readLine())!=null) {...})
in the end return accountList.toArray(new Account[0]);
You can read the text line by line and then use the "|" delimiter to separate the columns.
try (Stream<String> stream = Files.lines(Paths.get(fileName))) {
stream.forEach(System.out::println);
}
You could read the file line-by-line and split on the delimiter '|'.
The following example assumes the filepath is in args[0] and would read then output the name component of the input:
public static void main(String[] args) {
File file = new File(args[0]);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
while(String line = br.readLine()) != null) {
String[] details = line.split("|");
System.out.println(details[0]);
}
}
As mentioned in the comment above, you can simply split the line on your delimiter, |, and go from there.
Something like:
public class Account {
// ...
public static Account parseLine(String line) {
String[] split = line.split("|");
return new Account(split[0], split[1], split[2], split[3]);
}
}
should work fine (assuming you have a constructor which takes the four things you're putting in). If your Account class has more information than this, you can create an AccountView or similarly named class which does only contain the details you have available here. With this, just iterate line by line, parse your lines to one of these Objects, and use it's properties (including the already available getters) when calling other methods which need name, etc.
First, you need to read the whole content of the file or line by line.
Then, for each line you need to create a function to split the line text by a configurable delimiter. This function can receive the column number and it should return the needed value. For example: extractData(line, 0) should return 'name', extractData(line, 2) should return 'amount' etc.
Also, you need some validation: what if there are only 3 columns and you expect 4? You can throw and exception or you can return null/empty.
There are many possible ways to do it. One of them is to make an object that will hold the data. Example since you know that your data will always have name, number, amount and pin then you can make a class like this:
public class MyData {
private String name;
private String number;
private double amount;
private String pin;
// Add getters and setters below
}
Then while reading the text file you can make a list of MyData and add each data. You can do it like this:
try {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("path\file.txt"));
String line = reader.readLine();
ArrayList<MyData> myDataList = new ArrayList<MyData>();
while (line != null) {
String[] dataParts = line.split("|"); // since your delimiter is "|"
MyData myData = new MyData();
myData.setName(dataParts[0]);
myData.setNumber(dataParts[1]);
myData.setAmount(Double.parseDouble(dataParts[2]));
myData.setPin(dataParts[3]);
myDataList.add(myData);
// read next line
line = reader.readLine();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
Then you can use the data like this:
myDataList.get(0).getName(); // if you want to get the name of line 1
myDataList.get(1).getPin(); // if you want to get the pin of line 2
You can convert the file into a csv file and use a library specific for reading csv files, e.g. OpenCSV. This will give you more flexibility in handling the data in the file.

Parsing various values in Textfile (Java)

I have a textfile as such:
type = "Movie"
year = 2014
Producer = "John"
title = "The Movie"
type = "Magazine"
year = 2013
Writer = "Alfred"
title = "The Magazine"
What I'm trying to do is, first, search the file for the type, in this case "Movie" or "Magazine".
If it's a Movie, store all the values below it, i.e
Set the movie variable to be 2014, Producer to be "John" etc.
If it's a Magazine type, store all the variables below it as well separately.
What I have so far is this:
public static void Parse(String inPath) {
String value;
try {
Scanner sc = new Scanner(new FileInputStream("resources/input.txt"));
while(sc.hasNextLine()) {
String line = sc.nextLine();
if(line.startsWith("type")) {
value = line.substring(8-line.length()-1);
System.out.println(value);
}
}
} catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
Logger.getLogger(LibrarySearch.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
}
}
However, I'm already having an issue in simply printing out the first type, which is "Movie". My program seems to skip that one, and print out "Magazine" instead.
For this problem solely, is it because the line: line.startsWith("type")is checking if the current line in the file starts with type, but since the actual String called lineis set to the nextline, it skips the first "type"?
Also, what would be the best approach to parsing the actual values (right side of equal sign) below the type "Movie" and "Magazine" respectively?
I recommend you try the following:
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("resources/input.txt")));
String line;
while((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.contains("=")) {
String[] bits = line.split("=");
String name = bits[0].trim();
String value = bits[1].trim();
if (name.equals("type")) {
// Make a new object
} else if (name.equals("year")) {
// Store in the current object
}
} else {
// It's a new line, so you should make a new object to store stuff in.
}
}
In your code, the substring looks suspect to me. If you do a split based on the equals sign, then that should be much more resilient.

I/O Reading in object data from a file

I have a Vehicle class which contains all information about Vehicle objects including get and set methods. There is also a Showroom class which maintains a list of all of the Vehicle objects, with methods to add/delete and scroll through the list.
In my main (a seperate class called VehicleDriverClass) I am trying to use I/O to write Vehicle data to a file and read in Vehicle data from a file. I can write to a file fine. I am using notepad and so a .txt file to read from. The problem I am having is with how to terminate the end of a line when reading from the file. Here is the constructor for the Vehicle class, so you know the paramaters.
public Vehicle(String man, String mod, String VIN, String dateOfMan, char taxBand, int costOfVehicle)
{
this.manufacturer = man;
this.model = mod;
this.VIN = VIN;
this.dateOfManufacture = dateOfMan;
this.taxBand = taxBand;
this.costOfVehicle = costOfVehicle;
}
This is what I have for the Input method at the moment (without trying to create the oject, just reading from file). The Showroom s being passed to it is for use later, when I create the vehicle object and add it to the showroom.
// code replaced below.
With this implementation when the dataFromFile is outputted to the console it is all on one line, rather than on new lines. Does readline() not terminate the line when '\n' is read in?
Here is how my data is stored in the input file.
Fordtest\n Focus\n frank\n ioCheck\n 09/01/1989\n 23/11/2013\n true\n d\n 1995\n
So for now, how do I get the line to terminate? So that I can then implement the creation of an object from this.
EDIT: I/O is working now. I am now having trouble with the constructor for my Vehicle object needing a the data types char and int for the last two variables. With the current method they are in a string array.
I have removed the code from above and added the new implementation below.public static void
addNewVehicleFromFile(Showroom s)
{
String dataFromFile;
String[] tokens = null;
try
{
File fileReader = new File("AddNewVehicleFromFile.txt");
FileReader fr = new FileReader(fileReader);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);
while ((dataFromFile = br.readLine()) != null)
{
tokens = dataFromFile.split("~");
}
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(tokens));
Vehicle inputVehicle = new Vehicle(tokens[0], tokens[1], tokens[2], tokens[3],
tokens[4], tokens[5]);
/*
Erorr above here with these two. token[4] should be a char and [5] an int
*/
s.addVehicle(inputVehicle);
System.out.println("addNewVehicleFromFile Complete");
}
catch (FileNotFoundException fnfe)
{
System.out.println("File not found exception: " + fnfe.toString());
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
System.out.println("I/O exception: " + ioe.toString());
}
}
Should I be writing my own toChar and toInt methods to call for these two variables? Or parsing to int or similar.
I think you'll do better if you change your input data format. This is what XML and JSON were born for. If you must persist with your current arrangement, change the delimiter between data elements to something like a tilde '~' instead of \n.
So your input looks like this:
Fordtest~Focus~frank~ioCheck~09/01/1989~23/11/2013~true~d~1995
It's easy to parse now:
String [] tokens = data.split("~");
Write yourself some factory methods to create Vehicles:
public class VehicleFactory {
private static final VehicleFactory INSTANCE= new VehicleFactory();
private VehicleFactory() {}
public static VehicleFactory getInstance() { return INSTANCE; }
public static Vehicle createVehicle(String data) {
Vehicle value = null;
String [] tokens = data.split("~");
if ((tokens != null) && (tokens.length > X)) {
// Map String to int or Date here
value = new Vehicle(tokens[0], tokens[1], tokens[2], tokens[3], tokens[4], tokens[5]);
}
return value;
}
public static List<Vehicle> createVehicles(File f) {
List<Vehicle> values = new ArrayList<Vehicle>();
// implementation left for you
return values;
}
}
readLine() terminates the line when a character matching the Java syntax of \n is read. In most text editors, this is a newline. To express a newline in a Java string, use \n in the source code, but when creating the file by hand, use:
Fordtest
Focus
frank
ioCheck
09/01/1989
23/11/2013
true
d1995

BufferedReader: read multiple lines into a single string

I'm reading numbers from a txt file using BufferedReader for analysis. The way I'm going about this now is- reading a line using .readline, splitting this string into an array of strings using .split
public InputFile () {
fileIn = null;
//stuff here
fileIn = new FileReader((filename + ".txt"));
buffIn = new BufferedReader(fileIn);
return;
//stuff here
}
public String ReadBigStringIn() {
String line = null;
try { line = buffIn.readLine(); }
catch(IOException e){};
return line;
}
public ProcessMain() {
initComponents();
String[] stringArray;
String line;
try {
InputFile stringIn = new InputFile();
line = stringIn.ReadBigStringIn();
stringArray = line.split("[^0-9.+Ee-]+");
// analysis etc.
}
}
This works fine, but what if the txt file has multiple lines of text? Is there a way to output a single long string, or perhaps another way of doing it? Maybe use while(buffIn.readline != null) {}? Not sure how to implement this.
Ideas appreciated,
thanks.
You are right, a loop would be needed here.
The usual idiom (using only plain Java) is something like this:
public String ReadBigStringIn(BufferedReader buffIn) throws IOException {
StringBuilder everything = new StringBuilder();
String line;
while( (line = buffIn.readLine()) != null) {
everything.append(line);
}
return everything.toString();
}
This removes the line breaks - if you want to retain them, don't use the readLine() method, but simply read into a char[] instead (and append this to your StringBuilder).
Please note that this loop will run until the stream ends (and will block if it doesn't end), so if you need a different condition to finish the loop, implement it in there.
I would strongly advice using library here but since Java 8 you can do this also using streams.
try (InputStreamReader in = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
BufferedReader buffer = new BufferedReader(in)) {
final String fileAsText = buffer.lines().collect(Collectors.joining());
System.out.println(fileAsText);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
You can notice also that it is pretty effective as joining is using StringBuilder internally.
If you just want to read the entirety of a file into a string, I suggest you use Guava's Files class:
String text = Files.toString("filename.txt", Charsets.UTF_8);
Of course, that's assuming you want to maintain the linebreaks. If you want to remove the linebreaks, you could either load it that way and then use String.replace, or you could use Guava again:
List<String> lines = Files.readLines(new File("filename.txt"), Charsets.UTF_8);
String joined = Joiner.on("").join(lines);
Sounds like you want Apache IO FileUtils
String text = FileUtils.readStringFromFile(new File(filename + ".txt"));
String[] stringArray = text.split("[^0-9.+Ee-]+");
If you create a StringBuilder, then you can append every line to it, and return the String using toString() at the end.
You can replace your ReadBigStringIn() with
public String ReadBigStringIn() {
StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder();
try {
String line = buffIn.readLine();
while (line != null) {
b.append(line);
line = buffIn.readLine();
}
}
catch(IOException e){};
return b.toString();
}
You have a file containing doubles. Looks like you have more than one number per line, and may have multiple lines.
Simplest thing to do is read lines in a while loop.
You could return null from your ReadBigStringIn method when last line is reached and terminate your loop there.
But more normal would be to create and use the reader in one method. Perhaps you could change to a method which reads the file and returns an array or list of doubles.
BTW, could you simply split your strings by whitespace?
Reading a whole file into a single String may suit your particular case, but be aware that it could cause a memory explosion if your file was very large. Streaming approach is generally safer for such i/o.
This creates a long string, every line is seprateted from string " " (one space):
public String ReadBigStringIn() {
StringBuffer line = new StringBuffer();
try {
while(buffIn.ready()) {
line.append(" " + buffIn.readLine());
} catch(IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
return line.toString();
}

I want to parse multiple strings into variables from a .txt file in java. What's the easiest way to do it?

What's the best way to do it? Should I use the File class and scanner? I've never done it before and can't seem to find a solid guide for it online so I figured I would ask here.
Edit:
The text file I am parsing is 3 columns, the first three are ID NAME BIRTHDATE then actual data.
Edit (code from pastie):
public void readFromFile(File file )
{
try
{
System.out.println("success..");
s = new Scanner(file);
BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
String jj = null;
while((jj = input.readLine())!=null)
{
String [] words = jj.split("\\t");
String name = "";
String id = "";
String birthdate ="";
for (int i = 3; i<words.length; i+=3)
{
id =words[i];
name = words[i+1];
birthdate=words[i+2];
Person p = new Person(id, name, birthdate);
peopleMap.put(p.id,p);
names.add(p);
System.out.println("New entry added to file: "+name+"\\t"+"ID: "
+id+"\\t"+"Birthdate"+birthdate);
}
}
}
catch(IOException e)
{
}
}
The easiest way depends on the format of the text file. From your other comment, it sounds like the lines are tab separated values. As a beginner you will probably find it simplest to use Scanner. Specifically, Scanner.nextLine(). Couple that with using String.split("\t") to split the data into an array (assuming the format is tab-separated-values).
Simply depends on the format of the text file.
If its simple name value pair then you can use java.util.Properties. for example a.properties could look like:
name=john
city=san jose
date=12 july 2010
then you can load this as:
Properties props = new Properties();
props.load(new FileInputStream("a.properties"));
If format is different than what is supported by java.util.Properties.load() then using java.util.Scanner would be helpful to process it line by line:
File file = new File("data.txt");
try
{
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(file);
while (scanner.hasNextLine())
{
String line = scanner.nextLine();
//Process each line seperately
processLine(line);
}
} catch (FileNotFoundException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
If you are free to say what the syntax / structure of the text file is, then consider making it a Java properties file. Then you can load and save the file with minimal programming effort using the java.util.Properties class.
This is what I like to do in that situation:
Scanner s = new Scanner(file);
Scanner line;
String name;
String date;
int id;
while(s.hasNext()){
line = new Scanner(s.nextLine());
id = line.nextInt();
name = line.next/*String*/();
date = line.next/*String*/();
/* Do something with id, name and date */
}
Maybe there is some exception handling or something like that
(Anyone want to comment on the efficiency of creating many new Scanners?)

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