Reading from a text file into a two dimensional array

**Hayfield** · May 12th, 2012, 09:20 PM

Hello, this is my first post in this forum. I am a beginner in Java and now I am working on programming Comney's game of life ...
So I started off by writing the initial patterns in text files and now I am trying to read in the text files into two dimensional array

I am using these methods currently but they only read in the text into one dimensional array by using getFileSize(); ... how can I retrieve the two dimensions of the text file? what do i change in these three methods that can help me retrieve the number of columns and rows?

<
       public static void readFile(String[] words, String fileName)throws IOException
      {
         Scanner input = new Scanner(new FileReader(fileName));
         int i=0;									//index for placement in the array
         String line;	
         while (input.hasNextLine())		//while there is another line in the file
         {
            line=input.nextLine();			//read in the next Line in the file and store it in line
            words[i]= line;					//add the line into the array
            i++;									//advance the index of the array         
         }
         input.close();						
      }
 
 
       public static int getFileSize(String fileName)throws IOException
 
      {
         Scanner input = new Scanner(new FileReader(fileName));
         int size=0;
         while (input.hasNextLine())	//while there is another line in the file
         {
            size++;							//add to the size
            input.nextLine();				//go to the next line in the file
         }
         input.close();					//always close the files when you are done
         return size;
      }
 
    //pre: 
     //post:displays all of the elements of the array words
 
       public static void showArray(String[] words)
      {
         for (int i=0; i<words.length; i++)
            System.out.println(words[i] + " ");
         System.out.println();
 
      }
>

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 06:16 AM

how can I retrieve the two dimensions of the text file?

Please explain what and where the two dimensions of a text file are.

Please Edit your post and wrap your code with[code=java]<YOUR CODE HERE>[/code] to get highlighting

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 11:51 AM

The first text file name is "pattern1.txt"
and this is its content

---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
------------------------**-------------------------
---------------------***--***----------------------
----------------*****--------*****-----------------
--------------**------------------**---------------
--------------**------------------**---------------
----------------*****--------*****-----------------
---------------------***--***----------------------
------------------------**-------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------

and this is the rest of the code I am trying to modify too

 public static void main(String argv[])throws IOException
      {
 
         int size = getFileSize("patternOptions.TXT");	//holds the # of elements in the file
         String[] list = new String[size];			//array created to file specified size
         //getInfo(list);									//if we wanted the user to input into array
         readFile(list, "patternOptions.TXT");				
         showArray(list);
 
         System.out.println("Enter your choice please");
         int patternNumber = input.nextInt();
 
 
    if(patternNumber==1)
         {
            int size1 = getFileSize("pattern1.TXT");	//holds the # of elements in the file
            String[] list1 = new String[size1];			//array created to file specified size
         //getInfo(list);									//if we wanted the user to input into array
            readFile(list1, "pattern1.TXT");				
            showArray(list1);
            System.out.println(size1);
 
         }
 
         else    // I didn't finish the rest yet

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 11:56 AM

Given that file's contents as input, what do you want in the array(s)?
What does your current code do? What are your problems?

Where are the two dimensions?

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 12:14 PM

I want to input the text file into an array of [26][51] dimensions

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 12:19 PM

Can you describe what goes into each element in the array? If the two dimensions are considered as rows and columns, describe the relationship between each line in the file and each row and column of the array.

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 12:28 PM

like at list1[0][0] goes "-"
and like at list1[20][25] goes "*"
and it goes on in this way

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 12:47 PM

That is code, I'm looking for a description in English of where the characters in the file are to go.
The file has lines and characters in each line. The array has rows and columns. Explain in those terms.

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 01:32 PM

I want the characters in the text files to go into the 2D array ..
for example, the first character in the first line goes into the first column and the first row of the array

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 01:34 PM

What goes in the rest of the first row of the array?
What goes in the second row of the array?

Which dimension is the row and which the column? [r][c] or [c][r]

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 01:41 PM

---------------------------------------------------
this goes into the first row
the first character goes into the first column ... the second character goes into the second column .. until the last character in the first row which will go in the 51st column ..

another example ..
------------------------**-------------------------
this goes into the third row
the first character goes into the first column ... the second character goes into the second column .. until the last character in the first row which will go in the 51st column ..
so like list1[3][26] is *

the dimension is [r][c]

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 01:48 PM

Ok, we've got the definitions. Now explain what your problem is.
Read a row, take the characters one at a time and put them into the array. read next row and do it again. Continue until done.
Two loops: one for rows, one for characters in that row

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 04:04 PM

Ok now I get the idea
so I have this piece of code that counts the number of rows

 
public static int getFileSize(String fileName)throws IOException
 
      {
         Scanner input = new Scanner(new FileReader(fileName));
         int size=0;
         while (input.hasNextLine())	//while there is another line in the file
         {
            size++;							//add to the size
            input.nextLine();				//go to the next line in the file
         }
         input.close();					//always close the files when you are done
         return size;
      }

but how do I count the characters in the first row?

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 04:07 PM

If the row/line is read into a String variable, the String class has methods that will tell you how many characters are in the String.

**Hayfield** · May 13th, 2012, 04:32 PM

ok so I modified the method of reading the file into this

 
       public static void readFile(String[][] words, String fileName)throws IOException
      {
         Scanner input = new Scanner(new FileReader(fileName));
         int r=0;
         int c=0;									//index for placement in the array
         String dash;	
         while (input.hasNextLine())		//while there is another line in the file
         {
            while(input.hasNextChar())
            {
               dash=input.nextChar();			//read in the next Line in the file and store it in line
               words[r][c]= dash;	
            }		
            input.nextLine();		//add the line into the array
            r++;									//advance the index of the array         
         }
         input.close();						
      }

but obviously it wouldn't compile because there isn't anything such .nextChar but can you tell me an alternative that I can use to know if there are more character in a line?

**Norm** · May 13th, 2012, 04:36 PM

Did you look at what I suggested before?
If the line has been read into a String, all the characters from the line are in the String. There are no more.

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