Thread: Java IO File Reader Question???

Hi I was given this class and method and asked to:

" Please list your observations about this class, including bugs, poor programming, inefficiencies, etc..."

And wrote an alternative version using a Scanner instead and identified the forward slashes should be back slashes and escaped and provided my own readFileFixed() method, however I was told that this wasn't a very good solution and that I should go off and think a bit more about it, but cant really think of anything else and would be really greatful for any hints, tips or Advice....

package codeTest;
 
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
 
 
public class CodeTestExerciseBadCode {
 
	public CodeTestExerciseBadCode(){
 
	}
	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		CodeTestExerciseBadCode part2 = new CodeTestExerciseBadCode();
		System.out.println(part2.readFile());		
	}
 
	public String readFile(){
		File f = null;
		FileReader fr = null;
		StringBuffer content = null;
		try{
			f = new File("c:/samplefile.txt");
			fr = new FileReader(f);
 
			int c;			
			while((c = fr.read()) != -1){				
				if(content == null){
					content = new StringBuffer();
				}
 
				content.append((char)c);
			}
 
			fr.close();			
		}
		catch (Exception e) {
			throw new RuntimeException("An error occured reading your file");
		}		
 
		return content.toString();
	}
}

And my solution

public String readFileFixed() {
 
		StringBuffer content;
		content = new StringBuffer();
 
		File file = new File("C:\\here\\sampletextfile.txt");
		try {
			Scanner scanner = new Scanner(file);
			while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
				content.append(scanner.nextLine());
				content.append(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
			}
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
 
		return content.toString();
	}

So any suggestions would be great, thanks...

I'd move
System.getProperty("line.separator")
outside of the loop and have it store the value in a local variable instead of calling the method each time around the loop.

Hi thanks for that!!!