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Read a single line from a text file Java [duplicate]

Hey I'm trying to open a file and read just from an offset for a certain length!
I read this topic:
How to read a specific line using the specific line number from a file in Java?
in there it said that it's not to possible read a certain line without reading the lines before, but I'm wondering about bytes!
FileReader location = new FileReader(file);
BufferedReader inputFile = new BufferedReader(location);
// Read from bytes 1000 to 2000
// Something like this
inputFile.read(1000,2000);
Is it possible to read certain bytes from a known offset?

RandomAccessFile exposes a function:
seek(long pos)
Sets the file-pointer offset, measured from the beginning of this file, at which the next read or write occurs.

FileInputStream.getChannel().position(123)
This is another possibility in addition to RandomAccessFile:
File f = File.createTempFile("aaa", null);
byte[] out = new byte[]{0, 1, 2};
FileOutputStream o = new FileOutputStream(f);
o.write(out);
o.close();
FileInputStream i = new FileInputStream(f);
i.getChannel().position(1);
assert i.read() == out[1];
i.close();
f.delete();
This should be OK since the docs for FileInputStream#getChannel say that:
Changing the channel's position, either explicitly or by reading, will change this stream's file position.
I don't know how this method compares to RandomAccessFile however.

Java Apache FileUtils readFileToString and writeStringToFile problems

I need to parse a java file (actually a .pdf) to an String and go back to a file. Between those process I'll apply some patches to the given string, but this is not important in this case.
I've developed the following JUnit test case:
String f1String=FileUtils.readFileToString(f1);
File temp=File.createTempFile("deleteme", "deleteme");
FileUtils.writeStringToFile(temp, f1String);
assertTrue(FileUtils.contentEquals(f1, temp));
This test converts a file to a string and writtes it back. However the test is failing.
I think it may be because of the encodings, but in FileUtils there is no much detailed info about this.
Anyone can help?
Thanks!
Added for further undestanding:
Why I need this?
I have very large pdfs in one machine, that are replicated in another one. The first one is in charge of creating those pdfs. Due to the low connectivity of the second machine and the big size of pdfs, I don't want to synch the whole pdfs, but only the changes done.
To create patches/apply them, I'm using the google library DiffMatchPatch. This library creates patches between two string. So I need to load a pdf to an string, apply a generated patch, and put it back to a file.

A PDF is not a text file. Decoding (into Java characters) and re-encoding of binary files that are not encoded text is asymmetrical. For example, if the input bytestream is invalid for the current encoding, you can be assured that it won't re-encode correctly. In short - don't do that. Use readFileToByteArray and writeByteArrayToFile instead.

Just a few thoughts:
There might actually some BOM (byte order mark) bytes in one of the files that either gets stripped when reading or added during writing. Is there a difference in the file size (if it is the BOM the difference should be 2 or 3 bytes)?
The line breaks might not match, depending which system the files are created on, i.e. one might have CR LF while the other only has LF or CR. (1 byte difference per line break)
According to the JavaDoc both methods should use the default encoding of the JVM, which should be the same for both operations. However, try and test with an explicitly set encoding (JVM's default encoding would be queried using System.getProperty("file.encoding")).

Ed Staub awnser points why my solution is not working and he suggested using bytes instead of Strings. In my case I need an String, so the final working solution I've found is the following:
#Test
public void testFileRWAsArray() throws IOException{
String f1String="";
byte[] bytes=FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(f1);
for(byte b:bytes){
f1String=f1String+((char)b);
}
File temp=File.createTempFile("deleteme", "deleteme");
byte[] newBytes=new byte[f1String.length()];
for(int i=0; i<f1String.length(); ++i){
char c=f1String.charAt(i);
newBytes[i]= (byte)c;
}
FileUtils.writeByteArrayToFile(temp, newBytes);
assertTrue(FileUtils.contentEquals(f1, temp));
}
By using a cast between byte-char, I have the symmetry on conversion.
Thank you all!

Try this code...
public static String fetchBase64binaryEncodedString(String path) {
File inboundDoc = new File(path);
byte[] pdfData;
try {
pdfData = FileUtils.readFileToByteArray(inboundDoc);
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
byte[] encodedPdfData = Base64.encodeBase64(pdfData);
String attachment = new String(encodedPdfData);
return attachment;
}
//How to decode it
public void testConversionPDFtoBase64() throws IOException
{
String path = "C:/Documents and Settings/kantab/Desktop/GTR_SDR/MSDOC.pdf";
File origFile = new File(path);
String encodedString = CreditOneMLParserUtil.fetchBase64binaryEncodedString(path);
//now decode it
byte[] decodeData = Base64.decodeBase64(encodedString.getBytes());
String decodedString = new String(decodeData);
//or actually give the path to pdf file.
File decodedfile = File.createTempFile("DECODED", ".pdf");
FileUtils.writeByteArrayToFile(decodedfile,decodeData);
Assert.assertTrue(FileUtils.contentEquals(origFile, decodedfile));
// Frame frame = new Frame("PDF Viewer");
// frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
}

Write to file at particular index

I need to write to a file at a particular index position. BufferedWriter and PrintWriter does not allow writing to an index. How do I go about achieving this?
Basically what i want to do is if a file contains an empty line at the EOF then i need to write at that position, else insert a new line and write. Copying the contents of the file to a temporary file and then deleting the original file and then again renaming the temporary file to the original file's name isn't an option.
Thanks

You need to use a RandomAccessFile.
Using this class, you can go to a specific location using the seek(long) method and write using the different write methods.
In the case of your particuliar problem, the best solution weems to be
to use a RandomAccessFile and navigate to the end of your file. Check if this is a new line, write, close.

Given is the method to write content at particular position.
Lets say my file is Test.txt and content is as follow
Hello
How are you
Today is Monday
now you want to write "hi" after hello. So the offset for "hi" will be "5".
Method is :
filename = "test.txt";
offset = 5;
byte[] content = ("\t hi").getBytes();
private void insert(String filename, long offset, byte[] content) throws IOException {
RandomAccessFile r = new RandomAccessFile(filename, "rw");
RandomAccessFile rtemp = new RandomAccessFile(filename+"Temp", "rw");
long fileSize = r.length();
FileChannel sourceChannel = r.getChannel();
FileChannel targetChannel = rtemp.getChannel();
sourceChannel.transferTo(offset, (fileSize - offset), targetChannel);
sourceChannel.truncate(offset);
r.seek(offset);
r.write(content);
long newOffset = r.getFilePointer();
targetChannel.position(0L);
sourceChannel.transferFrom(targetChannel, newOffset, (fileSize - offset));
sourceChannel.close();
targetChannel.close();
rtemp.close();
r.close();
}
The output will be:
Hello hi
How are you
Today is Monday

Writing in the beginning of a text file Java

I need to write something into a text file's beginning. I have a text file with content and i want write something before this content. Say i have;
Good afternoon sir,how are you today?
I'm fine,how are you?
Thanks for asking,I'm great
After modifying,I want it to be like this:
Page 1-Scene 59
25.05.2011
Good afternoon sir,how are you today?
I'm fine,how are you?
Thanks for asking,I'm great
Just made up the content :) How can i modify a text file like this way?

You can't really modify it that way - file systems don't generally let you insert data in arbitrary locations - but you can:
Create a new file
Write the prefix to it
Copy the data from the old file to the new file
Move the old file to a backup location
Move the new file to the old file's location
Optionally delete the old backup file

Just in case it will be useful for someone here is full source code of method to prepend lines to a file using Apache Commons IO library. The code does not read whole file into memory, so will work on files of any size.
public static void prependPrefix(File input, String prefix) throws IOException {
LineIterator li = FileUtils.lineIterator(input);
File tempFile = File.createTempFile("prependPrefix", ".tmp");
BufferedWriter w = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(tempFile));
try {
w.write(prefix);
while (li.hasNext()) {
w.write(li.next());
w.write("\n");
}
} finally {
IOUtils.closeQuietly(w);
LineIterator.closeQuietly(li);
}
FileUtils.deleteQuietly(input);
FileUtils.moveFile(tempFile, input);
}

I think what you want is random access. Check out the related java tutorial. However, I don't believe you can just insert data at an arbitrary point in the file; If I recall correctly, you'd only overwrite the data. If you wanted to insert, you'd have to have your code
copy a block,
overwrite with your new stuff,
copy the next block,
overwrite with the previously copied block,
return to 3 until no more blocks

As #atk suggested, java.nio.channels.SeekableByteChannel is a good interface. But it is available from 1.7 only.
Update : If you have no issue using FileUtils then use
String fileString = FileUtils.readFileToString(file);

This isn't a direct answer to the question, but often files are accessed via InputStreams. If this is your use case, then you can chain input streams via SequenceInputStream to achieve the same result. E.g.
InputStream inputStream = new SequenceInputStream(new ByteArrayInputStream("my line\n".getBytes()), new FileInputStream(new File("myfile.txt")));

I will leave it here just in case anyone need
ByteArrayOutputStream byteArrayOutputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
try (FileInputStream fileInputStream1 = new FileInputStream(fileName1);
FileInputStream fileInputStream2 = new FileInputStream(fileName2)) {
while (fileInputStream2.available() > 0) {
byteArrayOutputStream.write(fileInputStream2.read());
}
while (fileInputStream1.available() > 0) {
byteArrayOutputStream.write(fileInputStream1.read());
}
}
try (FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(fileName1)) {
byteArrayOutputStream.writeTo(fileOutputStream);
}

Inserting text into an existing file via Java

I would like to create a simple program (in Java) which edits text files - particularly one which performs inserting arbitrary pieces of text at random positions in a text file. This feature is part of a larger program I am currently writing.
Reading the description about java.util.RandomAccessFile, it appears that any write operations performed in the middle of a file would actually overwrite the exiting content. This is a side-effect which I would like to avoid (if possible).
Is there a simple way to achieve this?
Thanks in advance.

Okay, this question is pretty old, but FileChannels exist since Java 1.4 and I don't know why they aren't mentioned anywhere when dealing with the problem of replacing or inserting content in files. FileChannels are fast, use them.
Here's an example (ignoring exceptions and some other stuff):
public void insert(String filename, long offset, byte[] content) {
RandomAccessFile r = new RandomAccessFile(new File(filename), "rw");
RandomAccessFile rtemp = new RandomAccessFile(new File(filename + "~"), "rw");
long fileSize = r.length();
FileChannel sourceChannel = r.getChannel();
FileChannel targetChannel = rtemp.getChannel();
sourceChannel.transferTo(offset, (fileSize - offset), targetChannel);
sourceChannel.truncate(offset);
r.seek(offset);
r.write(content);
long newOffset = r.getFilePointer();
targetChannel.position(0L);
sourceChannel.transferFrom(targetChannel, newOffset, (fileSize - offset));
sourceChannel.close();
targetChannel.close();
}

Well, no, I don't believe there is a way to avoid overwriting existing content with a single, standard Java IO API call.
If the files are not too large, just read the entire file into an ArrayList (an entry per line) and either rewrite entries or insert new entries for new lines.
Then overwrite the existing file with new content, or move the existing file to a backup and write a new file.
Depending on how sophisticated the edits need to be, your data structure may need to change.
Another method would be to read characters from the existing file while writing to the edited file and edit the stream as it is read.

If Java has a way to memory map files, then what you can do is extend the file to its new length, map the file, memmove all the bytes down to the end to make a hole and write the new data into the hole.
This works in C. Never tried it in Java.
Another way I just thought of to do the same but with random file access.
Seek to the end - 1 MB
Read 1 MB
Write that to original position + gap size.
Repeat for each previous 1 MB working toward the beginning of the file.
Stop when you reach the desired gap position.
Use a larger buffer size for faster performance.

You can use following code:
BufferedReader reader = null;
BufferedWriter writer = null;
ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
try {
reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
String tmp;
while ((tmp = reader.readLine()) != null)
list.add(tmp);
OUtil.closeReader(reader);
list.add(0, "Start Text");
list.add("End Text");
writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(fileName));
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
writer.write(list.get(i) + "\r\n");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
OUtil.closeReader(reader);
OUtil.closeWriter(writer);
}

I don't know if there's a handy way to do it straight otherwise than
read the beginning of the file and write it to target
write your new text to target
read the rest of the file and write it to target.
About the target : You can construct the new contents of the file in memory and then overwrite the old content of the file if the files handled aren't so big. Or you can write the result to a temporary file.
The thing would probably be easiest to do with streams, RandomAccessFile doesn't seem to be meant for inserting in the middle (afaik). Check the tutorial if you need.

I believe the only way to insert text into an existing text file is to read the original file and write the content in a temporary file with the new text inserted. Then erase the original file and rename the temporary file to the original name.
This example is focused on inserted a single line into an existing file, but still maybe of use to you.

If it is a text file,,,,Read the existing file in StringBuffer and append the new content in the same StringBuffer now u can write the SrtingBuffer on file. so now the file contains both the existing and new text.

As #xor_eq answer's edit queue is full, here in a new answer a more documented and slightly improved version of his:
public static void insert(String filename, long offset, byte[] content) throws IOException {
File temp = Files.createTempFile("insertTempFile", ".temp").toFile(); // Create a temporary file to save content to
try (RandomAccessFile r = new RandomAccessFile(new File(filename), "rw"); // Open file for read & write
RandomAccessFile rtemp = new RandomAccessFile(temp, "rw"); // Open temporary file for read & write
FileChannel sourceChannel = r.getChannel(); // Channel of file
FileChannel targetChannel = rtemp.getChannel()) { // Channel of temporary file
long fileSize = r.length();
sourceChannel.transferTo(offset, (fileSize - offset), targetChannel); // Copy content after insert index to
// temporary file
sourceChannel.truncate(offset); // Remove content past insert index from file
r.seek(offset); // Goto back of file (now insert index)
r.write(content); // Write new content
long newOffset = r.getFilePointer(); // The current offset
targetChannel.position(0L); // Goto start of temporary file
sourceChannel.transferFrom(targetChannel, newOffset, (fileSize - offset)); // Copy all content of temporary
// to end of file
}
Files.delete(temp.toPath()); // Delete the temporary file as not needed anymore
}