javabufferedreaderfile-handlingfile-read

java: how to use bufferedreader to read specific line


Lets say I have a text file called: data.txt (contains 2000 lines)

How do I read given specific line from: 500-1500 and then 1500-2000 and display the output of specific line?

this code will read whole files (2000 line)

public static String getContents(File aFile) {

        StringBuffer contents = new StringBuffer();

        try {

        BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(aFile));
        try {
            String line = null; 

            while (( line = input.readLine()) != null){
            contents.append(line);
            contents.append(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
            }
        }
        finally {
            input.close();
        }
        }
            catch (IOException ex){
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }

        return contents.toString();
}

How do I modify above code to read specific line?


Solution

  • I suggest java.io.LineNumberReader. It extends BufferedReader and you can use its LineNumberReader.getLineNumber(); to get the current line number

    You can also use Java 7 java.nio.file.Files.readAllLines which returns a List<String> if it suits you better

    Note:

    1) favour StringBuilder over StringBuffer, StringBuffer is just a legacy class

    2) contents.append(System.getProperty("line.separator")) does not look nice use contents.append(File.separator) instead

    3) Catching exception seems irrelevant, I would also suggest to change your code as

    public static String getContents(File aFile) throws IOException {
        BufferedReader rdr = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("aFile"));
        try {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            // read your lines
            return sb.toString();
        } finally {
            rdr.close();
        }
    }
    

    now code looks cleaner in my view. And if you are in Java 7 use try-with-resources

        try (BufferedReader rdr = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("aFile"))) {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            // read your lines
            return sb.toString();
        }
    

    so finally your code could look like

    public static String[] getContents(File aFile) throws IOException {
        try (LineNumberReader rdr = new LineNumberReader(new FileReader(aFile))) {
            StringBuilder sb1 = new StringBuilder();
            StringBuilder sb2 = new StringBuilder();
            for (String line = null; (line = rdr.readLine()) != null;) {
                if (rdr.getLineNumber() >= 1500) {
                    sb2.append(line).append(File.pathSeparatorChar);
                } else if (rdr.getLineNumber() > 500) {
                    sb1.append(line).append(File.pathSeparatorChar);
                }
            }
            return new String[] { sb1.toString(), sb2.toString() };
        }
    }
    

    Note that it returns 2 strings 500-1499 and 1500-2000