Chapter-6 File Handling Java Programming (3350703)

Chapter -6
File Handling
Introduction:
When we use variables and array for storing data inside the programs. We face two
Problems:
1) The data is lost either when a variable goes out of scope or when the
program is terminated. The storage is temporary.
2) It is difficult to handle large volumes of data using variables and arrays.

We can overcome these problems by storing data into secondary storage

devices. We can store data using concept of files. Data stored in file is often called
persistent data.

 A file is collection of related records placed area on the disk. A record is

composed of several fields. Field is a group of characters.
 Storing and managing data using file is known as file processing which
includes tasks such as creating files, updating files and manipulation of data.
 Reading and writing of data in a file can be done at the level of bytes or
characters or fields depending on the requirement of application.java provides
capabilities to read and write class object directly.
 The process of reading and writing objects is called serialization.

Concept of stream

 In file processing, inputrefers to the flow of data into a program and output
means the flow of data out of a program.
 Input to a program may come from the keyboard, mouse, memory, disk a
network or another program.
 Output from a program may go to the screen, printer, memory disk, network
or another program.
 Input and output share certain common characteristics like unidirectional
movement of data, treating data as a sequence of bytes or characters and
support to sequential access to data.
 Java uses concept of stream to representordered sequence of data, a common
characteristics shared by all input/output devices.
 A stream presents uniform, easy to use, object oriented interface between the
program and the input/output devices.
 A stream in java is a path along which data flows (like pipe along which
water flows). It has source (of data) and destination (for that data).Both the

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source and destination may be physical devices or programs or other streams

in same program.
 The concept of sending data from one stream to another has made streams in
java a powerful tool for file processing.
 We can build a complex file processing sequence using a series of simple
stream operation. This feature is used to filter data along the pipeline of
streams so that we obtain data in desired format.
 Java stream classified into basic type as follow:

Stream

Input Stream Output Stream

 Input stream: it extracts (i.e. reads) data from the source (file) and sends it to
the program.
 Output stream: it takes data from the program and sends (i.e. writes) it to the
destination (file).

Stream classes
The java.io package contains a large number of stream classes that provide
capabilities for processing all types of data. The classes may be categorized into two
groups based on the data type on which they operate.

1. Byte stream classes that provides support for handling I/O operations on bytes.

2. Character streamclasses that provide support for managing I/O operation on

characters

. These groups mayfurther be classified based on their functions. Byte stream and
character stream classes contain specialized classes to deal with input and output
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operations independently on various type of devices. We can also cross-group the

streams based on the type of source or destination they from or write to. The source
(or destination) may be memory, a file or a pipe.

1) Byte stream classes

 Byte stream classes have been designed to provide functional features for
creating and manipulating streams and files reading and writing bytes.
 Since the steams are unidirectional, they can transmit bytes in only one
direction and, therefore,
 Java provides two kinds of byte stream classes:
1) input stream classes
2) output stream classes.
1) Input Stream Classes
 Input stream classes that are used to read 8-bit bytes include super class
known as InputStream and a number of subclasses for supporting various
input-related functions. Figure shows class hierarchy of input stream.

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The super class InputStream is an abstract class, and, therefore, we cannot

create instances of this class.Rahter,we must use the subclasses that inherit from this
class. TheInputStream class defines method for performing input functions such as

 Reading bytes
 Closing streams
 Marking position in streams
 Skipping ahead in a stream
 Finding the number of bytes in a stream

Summary of InputStream Methods

Method Description
1 read() Reads a byte from the input stream
2 read(byte b[]) Reads an array of bytes into b
3 read(byte b[],intn,int m) Reads m bytes into b starting from nth byte
4 available() Gives number of bytes available in the input
5 skip(n) Skips over n bytes from the input stream
6 reset() Goes back to the beginning of the stream
7 close() Closes the input stream.
Note that the class DataInputStream extends FilterInputStream and implements
the interface DataInput. Therefore, the DataInputStream class implements the

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methods described in DataInput in addition to using the method of InputStream

class. The DataInput interface contains the following method.

 readShort()
 readInt()
 readLong()
 readFloat()
 readUTF()
 readDouble()
 readLine()
 readChar()
 readBoolean()
2) OutputStream Classes
 Output stream classes are derived from the base class OutputStream as shown in
figure. Like InputStream, the OutputStream is an abstract class and therefore we
cannot instantiate it. The several subclasses of the OutputStream can be used for
performing the output operations.

The OutputStream includes methods that are designed to perform the following
task:

 Writing bytes
 Closing stream
 Flushing stream

Summary of output stream methods

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Method Description
1 write() Writes a byte to the output stream
2 write(byte b[]) Writes all bytes in the array b to the output stream
3 write(byte b[],intn,int m) Writes m bytes from array b starting from nth byte
4 close() Close the output stream
5 flush() Flushes the output stream

The DataOutputStream, a counterpart of DataOutputStream, implements

the interface DataOutputStream and, therefore,implements the following
method contained in DataOutput interface.
 writeShort()
 writeInt()
 writeLong()
 writeFloat()
 writeUTF()
 writeDouble()
 writeBytes()
 writeBytes()
 writeChar()
 writeBoolean()

2) Character stream classes

Character stream classes were not a part of the language when it was released
in 1995. They were added later when the version 1.1 was announced.
Character streams can be used to read and write 16-bit Unicode characters.
Like byte streams, there are two kinds of character stream classes, reader
classes and writer stream classes.

1) Reader Stream Classes

 Reader stream classes are designed to read character from the files. Reader
class is the base class for all other classes in this group as shown in figure.
 These classes are functionally very similar to the input stream classes, except
input stream use bytes as their fundamental unit of information, while reader
stream use characters.

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 The Reader class contains method they are identical to those available in the
InputStream class, except Reader is designed to handle characters (see Table
6.1) Therefore, reader classes can perform all the functions implemented by
the input stream classes.

2)Writer Stream Classes

 Like output stream classes, the writer stream classes are designed to perform
all output operations on files. Only difference is that while output stream classes
are designed to write bytes, the writer stream classes are designed to write
characters.
 The Writer class is an abstract class which acts as a base class for all other
writer stream classes as shown in figure. This base class provides support for all
output operations by defining method that are identical to those in
OutputStreamclass(see Table 6.2)

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Using streams
 We have briefly various types of input and output stream classes used for
handling both the 16-bit characters and 8-bit bytes. Although all the classes are
known as i/o classes, not all of them are used for reading and writing operations
only. Some perform operations such as buffering, filtering, data conversion,
counting and concatenation while carrying out I/O tasks.
 As pointed out earlier, both the character stream group and the byte stream group
contain parallel pairs of classes that perform the same of operations but for the
different data type.

List of Tasks and Classes Implementing Them

Task Character Stream Byte Stream Class

Class
Performing input operations Reader InputStream
Buffering input BufferedReader BufferdInputStream
Keeping track of line numbers LineNumberReader LineNumberInputStream
Reading from an array CharArrayReader ByteArrayInputStream
Translating byte stream into a InputStreamReader (none)
character stream
Reading from files FileReader FileInputStream
Filtering the input FilterReader FilterInputStream
Pushing back characters/bytes PushbackReader PushbackInputStream
Reading from a pipe PipedReader PipedInputStream
Reading from a string StringReader StringBufferInputStream
Reading primitive types (none) DataInputStream
Performing output operations Writer OutputStream
Buffering output BufferedWriter BufferedOutputStream
Writing to an array CharArrayWriter ByteArrayOutputStream
Filtering the output FilterWriter FilterOutputStream
Translating character stream OutputStreamWriter (none)
into a byte stream
Writing to a file FileWriter FileOutputStream
Printing values and objects PrintWriter PrintStream
Writing to a pipe PipedWriter PipedOutputStream
Writing to a string String Writer (none)
Writing primitive types (none) DataOutputStream

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Other useful classes

The java.io package supports many other classes for performing certain specialized
functions. They include among others:

 RandomAccessFile :
The RandomAccessFile enables us to read and write bytes, text and
java data types to any location in a file. This class extends object class and
implements DataInputand DataOutputinterface
 StreamTokenizer :
The class StreamTokenizer, a subclass of object can be used for
breaking up a stream of text from an input text file into meaningful pieces
called tokens. The behaviour of the StreamTokenizerclass is similar to that
of StringTokenizerclass (of java.util package) that breaks string into its
component tokens.

Using the file class

The java.io package includes a class known as the File class that provides support
for creating files and directories. The class includes several constructors for
instantiating the File objects.

File class provides methods for operations like:

 Creating a file
 Opening a file
 Closing a file
 Deleting a file
 Getting the name of a file
 Getting the size of a file
 Checking the existence of a file
 Renaming a file
 Checking whether the file is writable
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 Checking whether the file is readable

Input/output Exceptions
When creating files and performing I/O operations on them, the system may
generate I/O related exceptions. The basic I/O related exception classes and their
functions:

I/O exception class Function

1 EOFException Signals that an end of file or end of stream
has been reached unexpectedly during input
2 FileNotFoundException Informs that a file could not be found
3 InteruuptedIOException Warns that an I/O operations has been
interrupted
4 IOException Signals that an I/O exception of some sort
has occurred

Creation of files:
If we want to create and use a disk file, we need to decide the following about
the file and its intended purpose:
 Suitable name for the file.
 Data type to be stored.
 Purpose (reading, writing, or updating).
 Method of creating the file.
A filename is a unique string of character that helps identify a file on the disk.
The length of a filename and the characters allowed are dependent on the OS on
which the java program is executed. A filename may contain two parts, a primary
name and an optional period with extension. Example:
Input.data salary
Test.doc student.txt
Inventory rand.dat
Data type is important to decide the type of file stream classes to be used for
handling the data. We should decide whether the data to be handled is in the form of
characters, bytes or primitive type.
The purpose of using a file must also be decided before using it. For example,
weshould know whether the file is created for reading only,or both the operations.

As we know, for using a file, it must be opened first. This is done by creating a
file stream and then linking it to the filename. A file stream can be defined using the
class of Reader/InputStreamfor reading data andWriter/OutputStreamfor
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writing data. The common stream classes used for various i/o operations given in
table . The constructors of stream classes may be used to assign the desired
filenames to the Stream objects.

Source/destination Characters
Read Write
Memory CharArrayReader CharArrayWriter
File FileReader FileWriter
Pipe PipedReader PipedWriter

Source/destination Bytes
Read Write
Memory ByteArrayInputStream ByteArrayoutputStream
File FileInputStream FileoutputStream
Pipe PipedInputStream PipedoutputStream

There are two ways of Italianizing the file Streamobjects. All of the constructors
require that we provide the name of the file either directly or indirectly by giving a
file object that has already assigned a file name. The following code segment
illustrates the use of direct approach.

FileInputStreamfis;
try
{
//Assign the filename to the file stream object
fis = new FileInputStream (“test.txt”);
........
}
catch (IOException e)
...........
...........

The indirect approach uses a file object that has been Italianized with the desired
filename. This is illustrated by the following code

.............

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.............
File inFile;
InFile = new file (“test.txt”);
FileInputStreamfis;
try
{
//give the value of the file object
//to the file stream object
Fis=new FileInputStream (inFile);
..............
}
catch (......)
...............
................

The code above includes five tasks:

 Select a filename.
 Declare a file object.
 Give a selected name to the file object declared.
 Declare a file stream object.
 Connect the file to the stream object.

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Example-1:
Write a program which creates file and writes byte into that file.

import java.io.*;

public class WriteByte

{
public static void main(String args[])
{
File f1=new File(“input.txt”); \\ to create new file
FileOutputStreamoutfile = null;
byte cities[] = {'I',’ ‘,’'L','O','V','E',’ ‘,'I','N','D','I’,’A'};
try
{
outfile = new FileOutputStream(f1);
outfile.write(cities);
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e);
System.exit(-1);
}
System.out.println("Write Byte");
System.out.println("Thank You...!!!");
}
}
Output :

Write Byte
Thank You!!!

Program-2

import java.io.*;

importjava.util.*;

public class WriteByte_1

public static void main(String args[])

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FileOutputStreamoutfile = null;

//String s=args[0]; // to input string from command line

Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in);

String s=sc.nextLine();

byte b1[] = s.getBytes();

try
{
outfile = new FileOutputStream("in.txt");
outfile.write(b1);
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e);
System.exit(-1);
}
System.out.println("Write Byte");
System.out.println("Thank You...!!!");
}

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Example-2:
Write a program which reads byte from file.

import java.io.*;
public class ReadingByte
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
FileInputStreaminfile = null;
int b;
try
{
infile = new FileInputStream("input.txt");
while((b = infile.read()) != -1)
{
System.out.println((char)b);
}
infile.close();
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Sorry..!! File Not Found...!!!");
}
}
}
Output :

I LOVE INDIA

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Reading/writing characters
As pointed out earlier, subclass of Reader and Writer implement streams that
can handle characters. The two subclasses used for handling characters in files
are FileReaderand FileWriter.

The concept of using file streams and file object for reading and writing
characters in program is illustrated in fig:

Example-3
Write a program which creates file and writes characterinto that file.

import java.io.*;
classCharacterWrite
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
File f1=new File("input1.txt");
FileWriterfw = null;
try
{
fw=new FileWriter(f1);
fw.write("ahmedabad \n");
fw.write(" baroda \n");
fw.close();
}
catch(FileNotFoundException e)
{
System.out.println("Sorry..!! File Not Found...!!!");
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
System.out.println(“ write operation done!!”);
}
}
Output:
write operation done

Example-4:
Write a program which reads character from file.
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import java.io.*;

classReadchar
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
FileReaderfr =null;
try
{
fr = new FileReader("input.txt");
intch;
while((ch = fr.read()) != -1)
{
System.out.print((char)ch);

}
System.out.println("Reading complete");
fr.close();
}
catch(FileNotFoundException e)
{
System.out.println("Sorry..!! File Not Found...!!!");
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
}
Output:
ahmedabad
baroda
Reading complete

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Example -5:
Write a program to read one byte at a time from a file and copy it into another
fileimmediately.
import java.io.*;
classCopyByte
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try
{
byte b=0;
FileInputStreaminfile = new FileInputStream("in.txt");
FileOutputStreamoutfile = new FileOutputStream("out.txt");
while(byteread != -1)
{
b = (byte)infile.read();
outfile.write(b);
}
System.out.println("Byte Copied From in.txt to out.txt FIle ");
}
catch(FileNotFoundException e)
{
System.out.println("Sorry..!! File Not Found...!!!");
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
}
Output :
Byte Copied From in.txt to out.txt File

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Example -6:
Write a program to merge two files in third file.
import java.io.*;
classFileMergeDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
try
{
FileInputStream file1 = new FileInputStream("File1.txt");
FileInputStream file2 = new FileInputStream("File2.txt");
SequenceInputStream file3 = new SequenceInputStream(file1, file2);
BufferedInputStream br1 = new BufferedInputStream(file3);
BufferedOutputStream br2 = new BufferedOutputStream(System.out);
intch;
while((ch = br1.read())!=-1)
{
br2.write((char)ch);
}
br1.close();
br2.close();
file1.close();
file2.close();
System.out.println("Merge Two File Sucessfully ");
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Sorry..!! File Not Found...!!!");
}
}
}
Output
Vpmpldrp

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Write an application to rename a file. Use the renameTo() method of File to

accomplish

/*this task. The first command line argument is the old filename and the second is
the newfilename.
*/

import java.io.*;

classFileRenameDemo
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
File f1 = new File(args[0]);
File f2 = new File(args[1]);
f1.renameTo(f2);
System.out.println("Rename File " +f1+" To "+f2+" Sucessfully ");
}
}

Output :

javacFileRenameDemo.java

javaFileRenameDemo input1.txt abc.txt

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