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Trying to add substrings from newLines in a large file to a list

I downloaded my extended listening history from Spotify and I am trying to make a program to turn the data into a list of artists without doubles I can easily make sense of. The file is rather huge because it has data on every stream I have done since 2016 (307790 lines of text in total). This is what 2 lines of the file looks like:
{"ts":"2016-10-30T18:12:51Z","username":"edgymemes69endmylifepls","platform":"Android OS 6.0.1 API 23 (HTC, 2PQ93)","ms_played":0,"conn_country":"US","ip_addr_decrypted":"68.199.250.233","user_agent_decrypted":"unknown","master_metadata_track_name":"Devil's Daughter (Holy War)","master_metadata_album_artist_name":"Ozzy Osbourne","master_metadata_album_album_name":"No Rest for the Wicked (Expanded Edition)","spotify_track_uri":"spotify:track:0pieqCWDpThDCd7gSkzx9w","episode_name":null,"episode_show_name":null,"spotify_episode_uri":null,"reason_start":"fwdbtn","reason_end":"fwdbtn","shuffle":true,"skipped":null,"offline":false,"offline_timestamp":0,"incognito_mode":false},
{"ts":"2021-03-26T18:15:15Z","username":"edgymemes69endmylifepls","platform":"Android OS 11 API 30 (samsung, SM-F700U1)","ms_played":254120,"conn_country":"US","ip_addr_decrypted":"67.82.66.3","user_agent_decrypted":"unknown","master_metadata_track_name":"Opportunist","master_metadata_album_artist_name":"Sworn In","master_metadata_album_album_name":"Start/End","spotify_track_uri":"spotify:track:3tA4jL0JFwFZRK9Q1WcfSZ","episode_name":null,"episode_show_name":null,"spotify_episode_uri":null,"reason_start":"fwdbtn","reason_end":"trackdone","shuffle":true,"skipped":null,"offline":false,"offline_timestamp":1616782259928,"incognito_mode":false},
It is formatted in the actual text file so that each stream is on its own line. NetBeans is telling me the exception is happening at line 19 and it only fails when I am looking for a substring bounded by the indexOf function. My code is below. I have no idea why this isn't working, any ideas?
import java.util.*;
public class MainClass {
public static void main(String args[]){
File dat = new File("SpotifyListeningData.txt");
List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
Scanner swag = null;
try {
swag = new Scanner(dat);
}
catch(Exception e) {
System.out.println("pranked");
}
while (swag.hasNextLine())
if (swag.nextLine().length() > 1)
if (list.contains(swag.nextLine().substring(swag.nextLine().indexOf("artist_name"), swag.nextLine().indexOf("master_metadata_album_album"))))
System.out.print("");
else
try {list.add(swag.nextLine().substring(swag.nextLine().indexOf("artist_name"), swag.nextLine().indexOf("master_metadata_album_album")));}
catch(Exception e) {}
System.out.println(list);
}
}

Find a JSON parser you like.
Create a class that with the fields you care about marked up to the parsers specs.
Read the file into a collection of objects. Most parsers will stream the contents so you're not string a massive string.
You can then load the data into objects and store that as you see fit. For your purposes, a TreeSet is probably what you want.

Your code will throw a lot of exceptions only because you don't use braces. Please do use braces in each blocks, whether it is if, else, loops, whatever. It's a good practice and prevent unnecessary bugs.
However, everytime scanner.nextLine() is called, it reads the next line from the file, so you need to avoid using that in this way.
The best way to deal with this is to write a class containing the fields same as the json in each line of the file. And map the json to the class and get desired field value from that.
Your way is too much risky and dependent on structure of the data, even on whitespaces. However, I fixed some lines in your code and this will work for your purpose, although I actually don't prefer operating string in this way.
while (swag.hasNextLine()) {
String swagNextLine = swag.nextLine();
if (swagNextLine.length() > 1) {
String toBeAdded = swagNextLine.substring(swagNextLine.indexOf("artist_name") + "artist_name".length() + 2
, swagNextLine.indexOf("master_metadata_album_album") - 2);
if (list.contains(toBeAdded)) {
System.out.print("Match");
} else {
try {
list.add(toBeAdded);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Add to list failed");
}
}
System.out.println(list);
}
}

How to use ByteArray for object serialisation and deserialisation

Context
I'm doing my student project and building a testing tool for regression testing.
Main idea: capture all constructors/methods/functions invocations using AOP during runtime and record all data into a database. Later retrieve the data, run constructors/methods/functions in the same order, and compare return values.
Problem
I'm trying to serialize objects (and arrays of objects) into a byte array, record it into PostgreSQL as a blob, and later (in another runtime) retrieve that blob and deserialize it back to object. But when I deserialize data in another runtime it changes and, for example, instead of boolean, I retrieve int. If I do exactly the same operations in the same runtime (serialize - insert into the database - SELECT from the database - deserialize) everything seems to work correctly.
Here is how I record data:
private void writeInvocationRecords(InvocationData invocationData, boolean isConstructor) {
final List<InvocationData> invocationRecords = isConstructor ? constructorInvocationRecords : methodInvocationRecords;
final String recordsFileName = isConstructor ? "constructor_invocation_records.json" : "method_invocation_records.json";
byte[] inputArgsBytes = null;
ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream out = null;
try {
out = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
out.writeObject(invocationData.inputArgs);
out.flush();
inputArgsBytes = bos.toByteArray();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
bos.close();
} catch (IOException ex) {
// ignore close exception
}
}
byte[] returnValueBytes = null;
ByteArrayOutputStream rvBos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream rvOut = null;
try {
rvOut = new ObjectOutputStream(rvBos);
rvOut.writeObject(invocationData.returnValue);
rvOut.flush();
returnValueBytes = rvBos.toByteArray();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
rvBos.close();
} catch (IOException ex) {
// ignore close exception
}
}
invocationRecords.add(invocationData);
if (invocationRecords.size() >= (isConstructor ? CONSTRUCTORS_CACHE_SIZE : METHODS_CACHE_SIZE)) {
List<InvocationData> tempRecords = new ArrayList<InvocationData>(invocationRecords);
invocationRecords.clear();
try {
for (InvocationData record : tempRecords) {
SerialBlob blob = new javax.sql.rowset.serial.SerialBlob(inputArgsBytes);
SerialBlob rvBlob = new javax.sql.rowset.serial.SerialBlob(returnValueBytes);
psInsert.setString(1, record.className);
psInsert.setString(2, record.methodName);
psInsert.setArray(3, conn.createArrayOf("text", record.inputArgsTypes));
psInsert.setBinaryStream(4, blob.getBinaryStream());
psInsert.setString(5, record.returnValueType);
psInsert.setBinaryStream(6, rvBlob.getBinaryStream());
psInsert.setLong(7, record.invocationTimeStamp);
psInsert.setLong(8, record.invocationTime);
psInsert.setLong(9, record.orderId);
psInsert.setLong(10, record.threadId);
psInsert.setString(11, record.threadName);
psInsert.setInt(12, record.objectHashCode);
psInsert.setBoolean(13, isConstructor);
psInsert.executeUpdate();
}
conn.commit();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Here is how I retrieve data:
List<InvocationData> constructorsData = new LinkedList<InvocationData>();
List<InvocationData> methodsData = new LinkedList<InvocationData>();
Statement st = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = st.executeQuery(SQL_SELECT);
while (rs.next()) {
Object returnValue = new Object();
byte[] returnValueByteArray = new byte[rs.getBinaryStream(7).available()];
returnValueByteArray = rs.getBytes(7);
final String returnType = rs.getString(6);
ByteArrayInputStream rvBis = new ByteArrayInputStream(returnValueByteArray);
ObjectInputStream rvIn = null;
try {
rvIn = new ObjectInputStream(rvBis);
switch (returnType) {
case "boolean":
returnValue = rvIn.readBoolean();
break;
case "double":
returnValue = rvIn.readDouble();
break;
case "int":
returnValue = rvIn.readInt();
break;
case "long":
returnValue = rvIn.readLong();
break;
case "char":
returnValue = rvIn.readChar();
break;
case "float":
returnValue = rvIn.readFloat();
break;
case "short":
returnValue = rvIn.readShort();
break;
default:
returnValue = rvIn.readObject();
break;
}
rvIn.close();
rvBis.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
if (rvIn != null) {
rvIn.close();
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
// ignore close exception
}
}
Object[] inputArguments = new Object[0];
byte[] inputArgsByteArray = new byte[rs.getBinaryStream(5).available()];
rs.getBinaryStream(5).read(inputArgsByteArray);
ByteArrayInputStream bis = new ByteArrayInputStream(inputArgsByteArray);
ObjectInput in = null;
try {
in = new ObjectInputStream(bis);
inputArguments = (Object[])in.readObject();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
if (in != null) {
in.close();
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
// ignore close exception
}
}
InvocationData invocationData = new InvocationData(
rs.getString(2),
rs.getString(3),
(String[])rs.getArray(4).getArray(),
inputArguments,
rs.getString(6),
returnValue,
rs.getLong(8),
rs.getLong(9),
rs.getLong(10),
rs.getLong(11),
rs.getString(12),
rs.getInt(13)
);
if (rs.getBoolean(14)) {
constructorsData.add(invocationData);
} else {
methodsData.add(invocationData);
}
}
st.close();
rs.close();
conn.close();

An explosion of errors and misguided ideas inherent in this question:
Your read and write code is broken.
available() doesn't work. Well, it does what the javadoc says it does, and if you read the javadoc, and read it very carefully, you should come to the correct conclusion that what that is, is utterly useless. If you ever call available(), you've messed up. You're doing so here. More generally your read and write code doesn't work. For example, .read(byteArr) also doesn't do what you think it does. See below.
The entire principle behind what you're attempting to do, doesn't work
You can't 'save the state' of arbitrary objects, and if you want to push the idea, then if you can, then certainly not in the way you're doing it, and in general this is advanced java that involves hacking the JDK itself to get at it: Think of an InputStream that represents data flowing over a network connection. What do you imagine the 'serialization' of this InputStream object should look like? If you consider serialization as 'just represent the underlying data in memory', then what you'd get is a number that represents the OS 'pipe handle', and possibly some IP, port, and sequence numbers. This is a tiny amount of data, and all this data is completely useless - it doesn't say anything meaningful about that connection and this data cannot be used to reconstitute it, at all. Even within the 'scope' of a single session (i.e. where you serialize, and then deserialize almost immediately afterwards), as networks are a stream and once you grab a byte (or send a byte), it's gone. The only useful, especially for the notion of 'lets replay everything that happened as a test', serialization strategy involves actually 'recording' all the bytes that were picked up, as it happens, on the fly. This is not a thing that you can do as a 'moment in time' concept, it's continuous. You need a system that is recording all the things (it needs to be recording every inputstream, every outputstream, every time System.currentTimeMillis() in invoked, every time a random number is generated, etc), and then needs to use the results of recording it all when your API is asked to 'save' an arbitrary state.
Serialization instead is a thing that objects need to opt into, and where they may have to write custom code to properly deal with it. Not all objects can even be serialized (an InputStream representing a network pipe, as above, is one example of an object that cannot be serialized), and for some, serializing them requires some fancy footwork, and the only hope you have is that the authors of the code that powers this object put in that effort. If they didn't, there is nothing you can do.
The serialization framework of java awkwardly captures both of these notions. It does mean that your code, even if you fix the bugs in it, will fail on most objects that can exist in a JVM. Your testing tool can only be used to test the most simplistic code.
If you're okay with that, read on. But if not, you need to completely rethink what you're going to do with this.
ObjectOutputStream sucks
This is not just my opinion, the openjdk team itself is broadly in agreement (they probably wouldn't quite put it like that, of course). The data emitted by OOS is a weird, inefficient, and underspecced binary blob. You can't analyse this data in any feasible way other than spending a few years reverse engineering the protocol, or just deserializing it (which requires having all the classes, and a JVM - this can be an acceptable burden, depends on your use case).
Contrast to e.g. Jackson which serializes data into JSON, which you can parse with your eyeballs, or in any language, and even without the relevant class files. You can construct 'serialized JSON' yourself without the benefit of first having an object (for testing purposes this sounds like a good idea, no? You need to test this testing framework too!).
How do I fix this code?
If you understand all the caveats above and somehow still conclude that this project, as written and continuing to use the ObjectOutputStream API is still what you want to do (I really, really doubt that's the right call):
Use the newer APIs. available() does not return the size of that blob. read(someByteArray) is not guaranteed to fill the entire byte array. Just read the javadoc, it spells it out.
There is no way to determine the size of an inputstream by asking that inputstream. You may be able to ask the DB itself (usually, LENGTH(theBlobColumn) works great in a SELECT query.
If you somehow (e.g. using LENGTH(tbc)) know the full size, you can use InputStream's readFully method, which will actually read all bytes, vs. read, which reads at least 1, but is not guaranteed to read all of it. The idea is: It'll read the smallest chunk that is available. Imagine a network pipe where bytes are dribbling into the network card's buffer, one byte a second. If so far 250 bytes have dribbled in and you call .read(some500SizeByteArr), then you get 250 bytes (250 of the 500 bytes are filled in, and 250 is returned). If you call .readFully(some500SizeByteArr), then the code will wait about 250 seconds, and then returns 500, and fills in all 500 bytes. That's the difference, and that explains why read works the way it does. Said differently: If you do not check what read() is returning, your code is definitely broken.
If you do not know how much data there is, your only option involves a while loop, or to call a helper method that does that. You need to make a temporary byte array, then in a loop keep calling read until it returns -1. For every loop, take the bytes in that array from 0 to (whatever the read call returned), and send these bytes someplace else. For example, a ByteArrayOutputStream.
Class matching
when I deserialize data in another runtime it changes and, for example, instead of boolean, I retrieve int
The java serialization system isn't magically changing your stuff on you. Well, put a pin that. Most likely the class file available in the first run (where you saved the blob in the db) was different vs what it looked like in your second run. Voila, problem.
More generally this is a problem in serialization. If you serialize, say, class Person {Date dob; String name;}, and then in a later version of the software you realize that using a j.u.Date to store a date of birth is a very silly idea, as Date is an unfortunately named class (it represents an instant in time and not a date at all), so you replace it with a LocalDate instead, thus ending up with class Person{LocalDate dob; String name;}, then how do you deal with the problem that you now want to deserialize a BLOB that was made back when the Person.class file still had the broken Date dob; field?
The answer is: You can't. Java's baked in serialization mechanism will flat out throw an exception here, it will not try to do this. This is the serialVersionUID system: Classes have an ID and changing anything about them (such as that field) changes this ID; the ID is stored in the serialized data. If the IDs don't match, deserialization cannot be done. You can force the ID (make a field called serialVersionUID - you can search the web for how to do that), but then you'd still get an error, java's deserializer will attempt to deserialize a Date object into a LocalDate dob; field and will of course fail.
Classes can write their own code to solve this problem. This is non-trivial and is irrelevant to you, as you're building a framework and presumably can't pop in and write code for your testing framework's userbase's custom class files.
I told you to put a pin in 'the serialization mechanism isnt going to magically change types on you'. Put in sufficient effort with overriding serialVersionUID and such and you can end up there. But that'd be because you wrote code that confuses types, e.g. in your readObject implementation (again, search the web for java's serialization mechanism, readObject/writeObject - or just start reading the javadoc of java.io.Serializable, that's a good starting-off point).
Style issues
You create objects for no purpose, you seem to have some trouble with the distinction between a variable/reference and an object. You aren't using try-with-resources. The way your SELECT calls are made suggests you have an SQL injection security issue. e.printStackTrace() as line line in a catch block is always incorrect.

Beginner Q: how to open a file in Java and keep it open

This is just for a simple command-line standalone program in Java.
I'd like to open a file to write to, and keep it open. I need to write formatted floats/doubles to it, in human-readable ASCII, like a CSV file.
I have tried various approaches (1) (2) (3) I have found through my favorite search engine, and they have the form:
try {
// some file handle opening sequence
}
catch ( <some exception> ) {
// do something
}
finally {
// do something else
}
(...or in the case of the third example, the file opening/writing/closing is inside a function that throws an exception.) I realize it's good programming style to make sure that you've opened a file ok, but for my purposes that's really not necessary.
Anyway the problem with the above approach is that outside of the try{} block, the filehandle is closed. I'd like to keep it open, because the kernel of my code consists of a huge loop that I go through a few 100,000 times (say), and each time through I'd like to output a single float (in ASCII) to the file.
With the above form, the only way to do that is to enclose my huge for loop inside the try{} block. Which seems silly. Alternatively, I could re-open the file every time through the loop, but that means additional logic, opening the file as a 'new' file the first time, and appending in all subsequent times.
Is there some way to open the file, keep it open to write to it occasionally, and then close it when I'm done?
Something like:
{
// open file "data.out"
}
for (i=0;i<100000;i++) {
// do a lot of stuff
//
// calculate some quantity "x"
//
// output float "x" in ASCII form, appending it to data.out
}
{
// close data.out
}
Does Java allow that? Thanks.

Of course you can simple store your FileWriter somewhere, as any other variable. You can, for example, encapsulate the whole writing logic in its own class, which offers one write method for your specified format.
But why does it seem silly? Perhaps this approach might help...
public void methodA(File myFile) throws IOException{
try ( FileWriter writer = new FileWriter( myFile ) ) {
writeTo(writer);
}
}
private void writeTo(FileWriter writer) throws IOException {
for (i=0;i<100000;i++) {
// do a lot of stuff
//
// calculate some quantity "x"
//
// output float "x" in ASCII form, appending it to data.out
}
}
This way, one method takes care of the opening/closing/exceptions, while the other method can concentrate on the important writing stuff, using the FileWriter given to it.

as you said the file is closed at the end of the try block. Possibly
the FileWriter object is created inside the try block:
(You did not post a real java code, only a pseudo code.)
Example, hope this helps
public static void main(String[] args)
{
...
BufferedWriter ofs=null; // should by outside the try block
try
{
Path logfile = Paths.set("C:\\temp\\log.log");
ofs = Files.newBufferedWriter(logfile); // new in java 8
YourWorker.doYourJob(ofs);
} catch (Exception e)
{ e.printStackTrace();
} finally
{
if (ofs!=null) { try { ofs.close(); } catch (Exception e) {} }
}
System.exit(1);
} //---------- end of main()
} //---- end of class

How to use the OpenCSV nextLine array

So, I'm using OpenCSV for a project I'm working on, and I've been doing fine so far, I managed to read a CSV file, as well as write to one. Because it's my first time using OpenCSV, I decided to use a tutorial I found on the internet, and adapt it a bit. So, what I've done is made a method called ReadData(). I can read the CSV and print it to the console fine, but what I want to do is access the "nextLine" array outside of the method.
public void ReadData(String filelocation) {
filelocation = System.getProperty("user.dir")+"/data/"+filelocation;
try {
CSVReader savereader = new CSVReader(new FileReader(filelocation), ',', '"', 0);
String[] nextLine;
while((nextLine = savereader.readNext()) != null) {
if(nextLine != null) {
//Make sure everything went through
System.out.println("Data Read. Results:");
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(nextLine));
}
}
} catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
//Handle Exception
} catch (IOException ex) {
//Handle Exception
}
}
This method reads the data from a file I specify. But, I want to be able to do things with that data. For example, I would want to take nextLine[0], and see if it is empty, if it is, do one thing. If it's not, then I want to do something else that would make it equal something.
Thanks in advance, and I hope I was clear enough about what I'm trying to accomplish!
Regards,
Johnny

The problem you have is an java issue not opencsv. The problem is that nextline is local to the method - in your case local to the try block. So anything outside of the method cannot reference nextline.
You could make nextline local to the method instead of the try and have the method return nextline (change from void to String[]) but you would only be returning the last line.
For what you want (to be able to check all the data after it has been read) is to store each String[] you read into a List and have the method return that. But if you are going to do that you should just use the readAll method of CSVReader (http://opencsv.sourceforge.net/apidocs/index.html). Be warned though that if you do that you are risking an OutOfMemoryException when dealing with large files.
Hope that helps.

What to pass into file I/O method as Context argument?

Feeling really stupid, and somehow I have a feeling I'm supposed to pass "this" as the argument for "Context", but honestly this whole concept is new to me and as confused as it has me I'd rather know 100% what and why before I start my endless hunt of syntactical errors.
I had asked a question a few days ago about how to use a file input/output stream to write the contents of an ArrayList of class objects to file to be retrieved when the app starts. Basically, I wanted to save entered values. I was feeling pretty confident in my code until I realized I have to pass a Context when calling my save and retrieval methods. It was then the realization I had no idea what a context was hit me... So yeah.
These are my methods:
Create the file (I guess?):
private static void updatePickThreeList(Context mC){
FileOutputStream stream = null;
try{
stream=mC.openFileOutput(PICK_THREE_NUMBERS,Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
ObjectOutputStream dout = new ObjectOutputStream(stream);
dout.writeObject(pickThreeNumbers);
stream.getFD().sync();
stream.close();
dout.flush();
}catch(IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Retrieve the data (I hope):
private static void getPickThreeList(Context mC){
FileInputStream stream = null;
try{
stream=mC.openFileInput(PICK_THREE_NUMBERS);
ObjectInputStream din = new ObjectInputStream(stream);
pickThreeNumbers = (ArrayList<PickThreeNumbers>) din.readObject();
stream.getFD().sync();
stream.close();
din.close();
}catch(IOException e){
e.printStackTrace();
}catch(ClassNotFoundException e1){
e1.printStackTrace();
}
}
And I assume I can call the first method to save the ArrayList to file, then call the second method to simply load the saved values to the array. By the way, the arrays and other values used are:
static List<PickThreeNumbers> pickThreeNumbers = new ArrayList();
final static String PICK_THREE_NUMBERS="pick_three_numbers";
So, per the response to my original question, both of these methods are required to be passed in a context, and Java is being fairly adamant about getting that context (go figure), so when I call updatePickThreeList(Context);, what exactly goes in as the "Context"?
Thanks in advance - I'm one very appreciative programming noob.

so when I call updatePickThreeList(Context);, what exactly goes in as the "Context"?
An instance of some class that extends Context. Depending on where you are calling this code, that might be an Activity or a Service.
BTW, please be careful when using static data members, so you do not introduce memory leaks.
Also, please do disk I/O on a background thread (e.g., AsyncTask or IntentService).