Simple Java I/O

Part I General Principles

8-Dec-13

Prologue
They say you can hold seven plus or minus two pieces of information in your mind. I cant remember how to open files in Java. Ive written chapters on it. Ive done it a bunch of times, but its too many steps. And when I actually analyze it, I realize these are just silly design decisions that they made. Even if they insisted on using the Decorator pattern in java.io, they should have had a convenience constructor for opening files simply. Because we open files all the time, but nobody can remember how. It is too much information to hold in your mind.
Bruce Eckel, http://www.artima.com/intv/aboutme2.html
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Streams

All modern I/O is stream-based A stream is a connection to a source of data or to a destination for data (sometimes both) An input stream may be associated with the keyboard An input stream or an output stream may be associated with a file Different streams have different characteristics:

A file has a definite length, and therefore an end Keyboard input has no specific end
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How to do I/O
import java.io.*;

Open the stream Use the stream (read, write, or both) Close the stream

Why Java I/O is hard

open use close

Java I/O is very powerful, with an overwhelming number of options Any given kind of I/O is not particularly difficult The trick is to find your way through the maze of possibilities

Opening a stream

open use close

There is data external to your program that you want to get, or you want to put data somewhere outside your program When you open a stream, you are making a connection to that external place Once the connection is made, you forget about the external place and just use the stream

Example of opening a stream

open use close

A FileReader is a used to connect to a file that will be used for input:

FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(fileName);

The fileName specifies where the (external) file is to be found You never use fileName again; instead, you use fileReader

Using a stream

open use close

Some streams can be used only for input, others only for output, still others for both Using a stream means doing input from it or output to it But its not usually that simple--you need to manipulate the data in some way as it comes in or goes out

Example of using a stream

int charAsInt; charAsInt = fileReader.read( );

open use close

The fileReader.read() method reads one character and returns it as an integer, or -1 if there are no more characters to read The meaning of the integer depends on the file encoding (ASCII, Unicode, other) You can cast from int to char: char ch = (char)fileReader.read( );
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Manipulating the input data

open use close

Reading characters as integers isnt usually what you want to do A BufferedReader will convert integers to characters; it can also read whole lines The constructor for BufferedReader takes a FileReader parameter:
BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);

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Reading lines
String s; s = bufferedReader.readLine( );

open use close

A BufferedReader will return null if there is nothing more to read

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Closing

open use close

A stream is an expensive resource There is a limit on the number of streams that you can have open at one time You should not have more than one stream open on the same file You must close a stream before you can open it again Always close your streams! Java will normally close your streams for you when your program ends, but it isnt good style to depend on this
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Simple Java I/O

Part II LineReader and LineWriter

8-Dec-13

Text files

Text (.txt) files are the simplest kind of files

Text files can be used by many different programs

Formatted text files (such as .doc files) also contain binary formatting information Only programs that know the secret code can make sense of formatted text files Compilers, in general, work only with text

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My LineReader class
class LineReader { BufferedReader bufferedReader; LineReader(String fileName) {...} String readLine( ) {...}

void close( ) {...}

}

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Basics of the LineReader constructor

Create a FileReader for the named file:

FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(fileName);

Use it as input to a BufferedReader:

BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);

Use the BufferedReader; but first, we need to catch possible Exceptions

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The full LineReader constructor

LineReader(String fileName) { FileReader fileReader = null; try { fileReader = new FileReader(fileName); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { System.err.println ("LineReader can't find input file: " + fileName); e.printStackTrace( ); } bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader); }

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readLine
String readLine( ) { try { return bufferedReader.readLine( ); } catch(IOException e) { e.printStackTrace( ); } return null; }
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close
void close() { try { bufferedReader.close( ); } catch(IOException e) { } }

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How did I figure that out?

I wanted to read lines from a file I thought there might be a suitable readSomething method, so I went to the API Index

Note: Capital letters are all alphabetized before lowercase in the Index

I found a readLine method in several classes; the most promising was the BufferedReader class The constructor for BufferedReader takes a Reader as an argument Reader is an abstract class, but it has several implementations, including InputStreamReader FileReader is a subclass of InputStreamReader There is a constructor for FileReader that takes as its argument a (String) file name
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The LineWriter class

class LineWriter { PrintWriter printWriter; LineWriter(String fileName) {...} void writeLine(String line) {...}

void close( ) {...}

}

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The constructor for LineWriter

LineWriter(String fileName) { try { printWriter = new PrintWriter( new FileOutputStream(fileName), true); } catch(Exception e) { System.err.println("LineWriter can't " + "use output file: " + fileName); } }
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Flushing the buffer

When you put information into a buffered output stream, it goes into a buffer The buffer may or may not be written out right away If your program crashes, you may not know how far it got before it crashed Flushing the buffer forces the information to be written out

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PrintWriter

Buffers are automatically flushed when the program ends normally Usually it is your responsibility to flush buffers if the program does not end normally PrintWriter can do the flushing for you
public PrintWriter(OutputStream out, boolean autoFlush)

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writeLine
void writeLine(String line) { printWriter.println(line); }

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close

void close( ) { printWriter.flush( ); try { printWriter.close( ); } catch(Exception e) { } }

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Simple Java I/O

Part III JFileChoosers

8-Dec-13

About JFileChoosers

The JFileChooser class displays a window from which the user can select a file The dialog window is modal--the application cannot continue until it is closed Applets cannot use a JFileChooser, because applets cannot access files

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Typical JFileChooser window

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JFileChooser constructors

JFileChooser()

Creates a JFileChooser starting from the users directory

JFileChooser(File currentDirectory)

Constructs a JFileChooser using the given File as the path

JFileChooser(String currentDirectoryPath)

Constructs a JFileChooser using the given path

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Useful JFileChooser methods I

int showOpenDialog(Component enclosingJFrame);

Asks for a file to read; returns a flag (see below)

int showSaveDialog(Component enclosingJFrame);

Asks where to save a file; returns a flag (see below)

Returned flag value may be:

JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION JFileChooser.CANCEL_OPTION JFileChooser.ERROR_OPTION

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Useful JFileChooser methods II

File getSelectedFile()

showOpenDialog and showSaveDialog return a flag telling what happened, but dont return the selected file After we return from one of these methods, we have to ask the JFileChooser what file was selected If we are saving a file, the File may not actually exist yet thats OK, we still have a File object we can use

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Using a File

Assuming that we have successfully selected a File:

File file = chooser.getSelectedFile(); if (file != null) { String fileName = file.getCanonicalPath(); FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(fileName); BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(fileReader); } File file = chooser.getSelectedFile(); if (file != null) { String fileName = file.getCanonicalPath(); FileOutputStream stream = new FileOutputStream(fileName); writer = new PrintWriter(stream, true); }

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Simple Java I/O

Part IV Serialization

8-Dec-13

Serialization

You can also read and write objects to files Object I/O goes by the awkward name of serialization Serialization in other languages can be very difficult, because objects may contain references to other objects Java makes serialization (almost) easy

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Conditions for serializability

If an object is to be serialized:

The class must be declared as public The class must implement Serializable The class must have a no-argument constructor All fields of the class must be serializable: either primitive types or serializable objects

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Implementing Serializable

To implement an interface means to define all the methods declared by that interface, but... The Serializable interface does not define any methods!

Question: What possible use is there for an interface that does not declare any methods? Answer: Serializable is used as flag to tell Java it needs to do extra work with this class

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Writing objects to a file

ObjectOutputStream objectOut = new ObjectOutputStream( new BufferedOutputStream( new FileOutputStream(fileName)));
objectOut.writeObject(serializableObject);

objectOut.close( );

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Reading objects from a file

ObjectInputStream objectIn = new ObjectInputStream( new BufferedInputStream( new FileInputStream(fileName))); myObject = (itsType)objectIn.readObject( );

objectIn.close( );

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What have I left out?

Encrypted files, compressed files, files sent over internet connections, ... Exceptions! All I/O involves Exceptions! try { statements involving I/O } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace ( ); }

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The End
There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
--Ken Olson, President/founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

--Thomas Watson Chairman of IBM,| 1943
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