Simple Java I/O

Part I
General Principles

Oct 18, 2024

 Prologue
“They say you can hold seven plus or minus two pieces of
information in your mind. I can’t remember how to open
files in Java. I’ve written chapters on it. I’ve done it a
bunch of times, but it’s 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

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 open
use
Why Java I/O is hard 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

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 open
use
Opening a stream 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

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 open
use
Example of opening a stream 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

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 open
use
Using a stream 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 it’s not usually that simple--you need to manipulate
the data in some way as it comes in or goes out

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 open
use
Example of using a stream close

int charAsInt;
charAsInt = fileReader.read( );

 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( );
 FileReaderExample1.java
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 open
use
Manipulating the input data close

 Reading characters as integers isn’t 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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 open
use
Reading lines close

String s;
s = bufferedReader.readLine( );

 A BufferedReader will return null if there is

nothing more to read
 FileReaderExample2.java

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 open
use
Closing 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 isn’t good style to depend on
this
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 Simple Java I/O

Part II
LineReader and LineWriter

Oct 18, 2024

 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
JFileChooser (not done in class)

Oct 18, 2024

 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 user’s 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 don’t 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—
that’s 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(not done in class)

Oct 18, 2024

 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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