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Reading a File without line breaks using Buffered reader

I am reading a file with comma separated values which when split into an array will have 10 values for each line . I expected the file to have line breaks so that
line = bReader.readLine()
will give me each line. But my file doesnt have a line break. Instead after the first set of values there are lots of spaces(465 to be precise) and then the next line begins.
So my above code of readLine() is reading the entire file in one go as there are no lined breaks. Please suggest how best to efficiently tackle this scenario.

One way is to replace String with 465 spaces in your text with new line character "\n" before iterating it for reading.

I second Ninan's answer: replace the 465 spaces with a newline, then run the function you were planning on running earlier.
For aesthetics and readability I would suggest using Regex's Pattern to replace the spaces instead of a long unreadable String.replace(" ").
Your code could like below, but replace 6 with 465:
// arguments are passed using the text field below this editor
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String content = "DOG,CAT MOUSE,CHEESE";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("[ ]{6}",
Pattern.DOTALL | Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
String newString = p.matcher(content).replaceAll("\n");
System.out.println(newString);
}

My suggestion is read file f1.txt and write to anther file f2.txt by removing all empty lines and spaces then read f2.txt something like
FileReader fr = new FileReader("f1.txt");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);
FileWriter fw = new FileWriter("f2.txt");
String line;
while((line = br.readLine()) != null)
{
line = line.trim(); // remove leading and trailing whitespace
if (!line.equals("")) // don't write out blank lines
{
fw.write(line, 0, line.length());
}
}
Then try using your code.

You might create your own subclass of a FilterInputStream or a PushbackInputStream and pass that to an InputStreamReader. One overrides int read().
Such a class unfortunately needs a bit of typing. (A nice excercise so to say.)
private static final int NO_CHAR = -2;
private boolean fromCache;
private int cachedSpaces;
private int cachedNonSpaceChar = NO_CHAR;
int read() throws IOException {
if (fromCache) {
if (cachecSpaces > 0) ...
if (cachedNonSpaceChar != NO_CHAR) ...
...
}
int ch = super.read();
if (ch != -1) {
...
}
return ch;
}
The idea is to cache spaces till either a nonspace char, and in read() either take from the cache, return \n instead, call super.read() when not from cache, recursive read when space.

My understanding is that you have a flat CSV file without proper line break, which supposed to have 10 values on each line.
Updated:
1. (Recommended) You can use Scanner class with useDelimiter to parse csv effectively, assuming you are trying to store 10 values from a line:
public static void parseCsvWithScanner() throws IOException {
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(new File("test.csv"));
// set your delimiter for scanner, "," for csv
scanner.useDelimiter(",");
// storing 10 values as a "line"
int LINE_LIMIT = 10;
// implement your own data structure to store each value of CSV
int[] tempLineArray = new int[LINE_LIMIT];
int lineBreakCount = 0;
while(scanner.hasNext()) {
// trim start and end spaces if there is any
String temp = scanner.next().trim();
tempLineArray[lineBreakCount++] = Integer.parseInt(temp);
if (lineBreakCount == LINE_LIMIT) {
// replace your own logic for handling the full array
for(int i=0; i<tempLineArray.length; i++) {
System.out.print(tempLineArray[i]);
} // end replace
// resetting array and counter
tempLineArray = new int[LINE_LIMIT];
lineBreakCount = 0;
}
}
scanner.close();
}
Or use the BufferedReader.
You might not need the ArrayList to store all values if there is memory issue by replacing your own logic.
public static void parseCsv() throws IOException {
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
// your delimiter
char TOKEN = ',';
// your requirement of storing 10 values for each "line"
int LINE_LIMIT = 10;
// tmp for storing from BufferedReader.read()
int tmp;
// a counter for line break
int lineBreakCount = 0;
// array for storing 10 values, assuming the values of CSV are integers
int[] tempArray = new int[LINE_LIMIT];
// storing tempArray of each line to ArrayList
ArrayList<int[]> lineList = new ArrayList<>();
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
while((tmp = br.read()) != -1) {
if ((char)tmp == TOKEN) {
if (lineBreakCount == LINE_LIMIT) {
// your logic to handle the current "line" here.
lineList.add(tempArray);
// new "line"
tempArray = new int[LINE_LIMIT];
lineBreakCount = 0;
}
// storing current value from buffer with trim of spaces
tempArray[lineBreakCount] =
Integer.parseInt(sb.toString().trim());
lineBreakCount++;
// clear the buffer
sb.delete(0, sb.length());
}
else {
// add current char from BufferedReader if not delimiter
sb.append((char)tmp);
}
}
br.close();
}

Reading a specific set of lines in a file [duplicate]

In Java, is there any method to read a particular line from a file? For example, read line 32 or any other line number.

For small files:
String line32 = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get("file.txt")).get(32)
For large files:
try (Stream<String> lines = Files.lines(Paths.get("file.txt"))) {
line32 = lines.skip(31).findFirst().get();
}

Unless you have previous knowledge about the lines in the file, there's no way to directly access the 32nd line without reading the 31 previous lines.
That's true for all languages and all modern file systems.
So effectively you'll simply read lines until you've found the 32nd one.

Not that I know of, but what you could do is loop through the first 31 lines doing nothing using the readline() function of BufferedReader
FileInputStream fs= new FileInputStream("someFile.txt");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fs));
for(int i = 0; i < 31; ++i)
br.readLine();
String lineIWant = br.readLine();

Joachim is right on, of course, and an alternate implementation to Chris' (for small files only because it loads the entire file) might be to use commons-io from Apache (though arguably you might not want to introduce a new dependency just for this, if you find it useful for other stuff too though, it could make sense).
For example:
String line32 = (String) FileUtils.readLines(file).get(31);
http://commons.apache.org/io/api-release/org/apache/commons/io/FileUtils.html#readLines(java.io.File, java.lang.String)

You may try indexed-file-reader (Apache License 2.0). The class IndexedFileReader has a method called readLines(int from, int to) which returns a SortedMap whose key is the line number and the value is the line that was read.
Example:
File file = new File("src/test/resources/file.txt");
reader = new IndexedFileReader(file);
lines = reader.readLines(6, 10);
assertNotNull("Null result.", lines);
assertEquals("Incorrect length.", 5, lines.size());
assertTrue("Incorrect value.", lines.get(6).startsWith("[6]"));
assertTrue("Incorrect value.", lines.get(7).startsWith("[7]"));
assertTrue("Incorrect value.", lines.get(8).startsWith("[8]"));
assertTrue("Incorrect value.", lines.get(9).startsWith("[9]"));
assertTrue("Incorrect value.", lines.get(10).startsWith("[10]"));
The above example reads a text file composed of 50 lines in the following format:
[1] The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog ODD
[2] The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog EVEN
Disclamer: I wrote this library

Although as said in other answers, it is not possible to get to the exact line without knowing the offset (pointer) before. So, I've achieved this by creating an temporary index file which would store the offset values of every line. If the file is small enough, you could just store the indexes (offset) in memory without needing a separate file for it.
The offsets can be calculated by using the RandomAccessFile
RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile("myFile.txt","r");
//above 'r' means open in read only mode
ArrayList<Integer> arrayList = new ArrayList<Integer>();
String cur_line = "";
while((cur_line=raf.readLine())!=null)
{
arrayList.add(raf.getFilePointer());
}
//Print the 32 line
//Seeks the file to the particular location from where our '32' line starts
raf.seek(raf.seek(arrayList.get(31));
System.out.println(raf.readLine());
raf.close();
Also visit the Java docs on RandomAccessFile for more information:
Complexity: This is O(n) as it reads the entire file once. Please be aware for the memory requirements. If it's too big to be in memory, then make a temporary file that stores the offsets instead of ArrayList as shown above.
Note: If all you want in '32' line, you just have to call the readLine() also available through other classes '32' times. The above approach is useful if you want to get the a specific line (based on line number of course) multiple times.

Another way.
try (BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(
Paths.get("file.txt"), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
List<String> line = reader.lines()
.skip(31)
.limit(1)
.collect(Collectors.toList());
line.stream().forEach(System.out::println);
}

No, unless in that file format the line lengths are pre-determined (e.g. all lines with a fixed length), you'll have to iterate line by line to count them.

In Java 8,
For small files:
String line = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get("file.txt")).get(n);
For large files:
String line;
try (Stream<String> lines = Files.lines(Paths.get("file.txt"))) {
line = lines.skip(n).findFirst().get();
}
In Java 7
String line;
try (BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"))) {
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
br.readLine();
line = br.readLine();
}
Source: Reading nth line from file

If you are talking about a text file, then there is really no way to do this without reading all the lines that precede it - After all, lines are determined by the presence of a newline, so it has to be read.
Use a stream that supports readline, and just read the first X-1 lines and dump the results, then process the next one.

It works for me:
I have combined the answer of
Reading a simple text file
But instead of return a String I am returning a LinkedList of Strings. Then I can select the line that I want.
public static LinkedList<String> readFromAssets(Context context, String filename) throws IOException {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(context.getAssets().open(filename)));
LinkedList<String>linkedList = new LinkedList<>();
// do reading, usually loop until end of file reading
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String mLine = reader.readLine();
while (mLine != null) {
linkedList.add(mLine);
sb.append(mLine); // process line
mLine = reader.readLine();
}
reader.close();
return linkedList;
}

Use this code:
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
public class FileWork
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
String line = Files.readAllLines(Paths.get("D:/abc.txt")).get(1);
System.out.println(line);
}
}

You can use LineNumberReader instead of BufferedReader. Go through the api. You can find setLineNumber and getLineNumber methods.

You can also take a look at LineNumberReader, subclass of BufferedReader. Along with the readline method, it also has setter/getter methods to access line number. Very useful to keep track of the number of lines read, while reading data from file.

public String readLine(int line){
FileReader tempFileReader = null;
BufferedReader tempBufferedReader = null;
try { tempFileReader = new FileReader(textFile);
tempBufferedReader = new BufferedReader(tempFileReader);
} catch (Exception e) { }
String returnStr = "ERROR";
for(int i = 0; i < line - 1; i++){
try { tempBufferedReader.readLine(); } catch (Exception e) { }
}
try { returnStr = tempBufferedReader.readLine(); } catch (Exception e) { }
return returnStr;
}

you can use the skip() function to skip the lines from begining.
public static void readFile(String filePath, long lineNum) {
List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
long totalLines, startLine = 0;
try (Stream<String> lines = Files.lines(Paths.get(filePath))) {
totalLines = Files.lines(Paths.get(filePath)).count();
startLine = totalLines - lineNum;
// Stream<String> line32 = lines.skip(((startLine)+1));
list = lines.skip(startLine).collect(Collectors.toList());
// lines.forEach(list::add);
} catch (IOException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
}
list.forEach(System.out::println);
}

EASY WAY - Reading a line using line number.
Let's say Line number starts from 1 till null .
public class TextFileAssignmentOct {
private void readData(int rowNum, BufferedReader br) throws IOException {
int n=1; //Line number starts from 1
String row;
while((row=br.readLine()) != null) { // Reads every line
if (n == rowNum) { // When Line number matches with which you want to read
System.out.println(row);
}
n++; //This increments Line number
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
File f = new File("../JavaPractice/FileRead.txt");
FileReader fr = new FileReader(f);
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(fr);
TextFileAssignmentOct txf = new TextFileAssignmentOct();
txf.readData(4, br); //Read a Specific Line using Line number and Passing buffered reader
}
}

for a text file you can use an integer with a loop to help you get the number of the line, don't forget to import the classes we are using in this example
File myObj = new File("C:\\Users\\LENOVO\\Desktop\\test.txt");//path of the file
FileReader fr = new FileReader(myObj);
fr.read();
BufferedReader bf = new BufferedReader(fr); //BufferedReader of the FileReader fr
String line = bf.readLine();
int lineNumber = 0;
while (line != null) {
lineNumber = lineNumber + 1;
if(lineNumber == 7)
{
//show line
System.out.println("line: " + lineNumber + " has :" + line);
break;
}
//lecture de la prochaine ligne, reading next
line = bf.readLine();
}

They are all wrong I just wrote this in about 10 seconds.
With this I managed to just call the object.getQuestion("linenumber") in the main method to return whatever line I want.
public class Questions {
File file = new File("Question2Files/triviagame1.txt");
public Questions() {
}
public String getQuestion(int numLine) throws IOException {
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
String line = "";
for(int i = 0; i < numLine; i++) {
line = br.readLine();
}
return line; }}

how can i use split() with a big number of elements, java

I need to process a big text file, there are almost 400 column in each line, and almost 800000 lines in the file, the format of each line in the file is like:
340,9,2,3........5,2,LA
what I want to do is, for each line, if the last column is LA, then print the first column of this line.
i write a simple program to do it
BufferedReader bufr = new BufferedReader(new FileReader ("A.txt"));
BufferedWriter bufw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter ("LA.txt"));
String line = null;
while ((line = bufr.readLine()) != null) {
String [] text = new String [388];
text = line.split(",");
if (text [387] == args[2]) {
bufw.write(text[0]);
bufw.newLine();
bufw.flush();
}
}
bufw.close();
bufr.close();
but it seems the length of an array cant be that big, i received a java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
since i'm using split(",") in order to get the last column of a line, and it will be out of array bounds, how can I do with it? thanks.

text does not need to be initialized, String.split will create a correctly sized array:
String[] text = line.split(",");
You're also comparing Strings using reference equality (==). You should be using .equals():
if (text[387].equals(args[2])) { ... }
You're probably getting java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException because the the index 387 is too big. If you want to get last element, use this:
text[text.length - 1]

Modify and try this
String [] text = line.split(",");
if (text [text.length - 1].equals(args[2])) {
bufw.write(text[0]);
bufw.newLine();
bufw.flush();
}
Assuming args[2] is LA.

String [] text;
Change your code to this. You don't need to initialize a size. When the String.split method executes it will automatically initialize the correct size for your array.

If you just need the first and the last column, then there is no need to create an array out of the current line.
You could do something like this:
final String test = "340,9,2,354,63,5,5,45,634,5,5,2,LA";
final char delimiter = ',';
final String lastColumn = test.substring(test.lastIndexOf(delimiter) + 1);
if (lastColumn.equals("LA")) {
final String firstColumn = test.substring(0, test.indexOf(delimiter));
System.out.println(firstColumn);
}
This code extracts the last column first and tests it. If it matches "LA", then it extract the first column. It will ignore the remaining content of the line.
Your code would be:
BufferedReader bufr = new BufferedReader(new FileReader ("A.txt"));
BufferedWriter bufw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter ("LA.txt"));
String line = null;
while ((line = bufr.readLine()) != null) {
final String lastColumn = line.substring(line.lastIndexOf(delimiter) + 1);
if (lastColumn.equals(args[2])) {
bufw.write(line.substring(0, line.indexOf(delimiter)));
bufw.newLine();
bufw.flush();
}
}
bufw.close();
bufr.close();
(this code is not tested yet, but you get the idea :))

Read one line of a csv file in Java

I have a csv file that currently has 20 lines of data.
The data contains employee info and is in the following format:
first name, last name, Employee ID
So one line would like this: Emma, Nolan, 2
I know how to write to the file in java and have all 20 lines print to the console, but what I'm not sure how to do is how to get Java to print one specific line to the console.
I also want to take the last employee id number in the last entry and have java add 1 to it one I add new employees. I thinking this needs to be done with a counter just not sure how.

You can do something like this:
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(<<your file>>));
List<String> lines = new ArrayList<>();
String line = null;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
lines.add(line);
}
System.out.println(lines.get(0));
With BufferedReader you are able to read lines directly. This example reads the file line by line and stores the lines in an array list. You can access the lines after that by using lines.get(lineNumber).

You can read text from a file one line at a time and then do whatever you want to with that line, print it, compare it, etc...
// Construct a BufferedReader object from the input file
BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("employeeData.txt"));
int i = 1;
try {
// "Prime" the while loop
String line = r.readLine();
while (line != null) {
// Print a single line of input file to console
System.out.print("Line "+i+": "+line);
// Prepare for next loop iteration
line = r.readLine();
i++;
}
} finally {
// Free up file descriptor resources
r.close();
}
// Remember the next available employee number in a one-up scheme
int nextEmployeeId = i;

BufferedReader reader =new BufferedReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv"));
String line = "";
while((line=reader.readLine())!=null){
String [] employee =line.trim().split(",");
// if you want to check either it contains some name
//index 0 is first name, index 1 is last name, index 2 is ID
}

Alternatively, If you want more control over read CSV files then u can think about CsvBeanReader that will give you more access over files contents..

Here is an algorithm which I use for reading csv files. The most effective way is to read all the data in the csv file into a 2D array first. It just makes it a lot more flexible to manipulate the data.
That way you can specify which line of the file to print to the console by specifying it in the index of the array and using a for. I.e: System.out.println(employee_Data[1][y]); for record 1. y is the index variable for fields. You would need to use a For Loop of course, to print every element for each line.
By the way, if you want to use the employee data in a larger program, in which it may for example store the data in a database or write to another file, I'd recommend encapsulating this entire code block into a function named Read_CSV_File(), which will return a 2D String array.
My Code
// The return type of this function is a String.
// The CSVFile_path can be for example "employeeData.csv".
public static String[][] Read_CSV_File(String CSVFile_path){
String employee_Data[][];
int x;
int y;
int noofFields;
try{
String line;
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(CSVFile_path));
// reading files in specified directory
// This assigns the data to the 2D array
// The program keeps looping through until the line read in by the console contains no data in it i.e. the end of the file.
while ( (( line = in.readLine()) != null ){
String[] current_Record = line.split(",");
if(x == 0) {
// Counts the number of fields in the csv file.
noofFields = current_Record.length();
}
for (String str : values) {
employee_Data[x][y] = str;
System.out.print(", "+employee_Data[x][y]);
// The field index variable, y is incremented in every loop.
y = y + 1;
}
// The record index variable, x is incremented in every loop.
x = x + 1;
}
// This frees up the BufferedReader file descriptor resources
in.close();
/* If an error occurs, it is caught by the catch statement and an error message
* is generated and displayed to the user.
*/
}catch( IOException ioException ) {
System.out.println("Exception: "+ioException);
}
// This prints to console the specific line of your choice
System.out.println(("Employee 1:);
for(y = 0; y < noofFields ; y++){
// Prints out all fields of record 1
System.out.print(employee_Data[1][y]+", ");
}
return employee_Data;
}

For reading large file,
log.debug("****************Start Reading CSV File*******");
copyFile(inputCSVFile);
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
String line= "";
BufferedReader brOldFile = null;
try {
String inputfile = inputCSVFile;
log.info("inputfile:" + inputfile);
brOldFile = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(inputfile));
while ((line = brOldFile.readLine()) != null) {
//line = replaceSpecialChar(line);
/*do your stuff here*/
stringBuilder.append(line);
stringBuilder.append("\n");
}
log.debug("****************End reading CSV File**************");
} catch (Exception e) {
log.error(" exception in readStaffInfoCSVFile ", e);
}finally {
if(null != brOldFile) {
try {
brOldFile.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
}
}
}
return stringBuilder.toString();

How to skip certain line from Text file in java?

I am currently learning Java and I have faced this problem where I want to load a file that consists a huge number of lines (I am reading the file line by line ) and the thing I want to do is skip certain lines (pseudo-code).
the line thats starts with (specific word such as "ABC")
I have tried to use
if(line.startwith("abc"))
But that didn't work. I am not sure if I am doing it wrong, that's why I am here asking for a help, below part of the load function:
public String loadfile(.........){
//here goes the variables
try {
File data= new File(dataFile);
if (data.exists()) {
br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(dataFile));
while ((thisLine = br.readLine()) != null) {
if (thisLine.length() > 0) {
tmpLine = thisLine.toString();
tmpLine2 = tmpLine.split(......);
[...]

Try
if (line.toUpperCase().startsWith(­"ABC")){
//skip line
} else {
//do something
}
This will converts the line to all the Upper Characters by using function toUpperCase() and will check whether the string starts with ABC .
And if it is true then it will do nothing(skip the line) and go into the else part.
You can also use startsWithIgnoreCase which is a function provided by the Apache Commons . It takes the two string arguments.
public static boolean startsWithIgnoreCase(String str,
String prefix)
This function return boolean.
And checks whether a String starts with a specified prefix.
It return true if the String starts with the prefix , case insensitive.

If the case isn't important try using the StringUtils.startsWithIgnoreCase(String str,
String prefix) of Apache Commons
This function return boolean.
See javadoc here
Usage:
if (StringUtils.startsWithIgnoreCase(­line, "abc")){
//skip line
} else {
//do something
}

If you have large a input File, you code will create a OutOfMemoryError. there is nothing you can do against it without editing te code (adding more memory will fail, if the file gets bigger).
I beleave you store the selected lines in memory. If the file gets lager (2GB or so) you'll have 4GB in memory. (The old Value of the String and the new one).
You have to work with streams to solve this.
Create a FileOutpuStream, and write the selcted line into that Stream.
Your method must be changed. For a large input yo cannot return a String:
public String loadfile(...){
You can return a Stream or a file.
public MyDeletingLineBufferedReader loadFile(...)

you can use:
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"));
String lineString;
try{
while((lineString = br.readLine()) != null) {
if (lineString.toUpperCase().startsWith(­"abc")){
//skip
} else {
//do something
}
}
}
or
static boolean startsWithIgnoreCase(String str, String prefix) method in org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils like below.
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("file.txt"));
String lineString;
try{
while((lineString = br.readLine()) != null) {
if (StringUtils.startsWithIgnoreCase(­lineString, "abc")){
//skip
} else {
//do something
}
}
}