How Do I Create a Java String from the Contents of a File?
I've Been Using the Idiom Below for Some Time Now. and It Seems to Be the Most Wide-Spread, at Least on the Sites I've Visited. Is There a Better/Different Way...
I've been using the idiom below for some time now. And it seems to be the most wide-spread, at least on the sites I've visited.
Is there a better/different way to read a file into a string in Java?
private String readFile(String file) throws IOException {
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader (file));
String line = null;
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
String ls = System.getProperty("line.separator");
try {
while((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
stringBuilder.append(line);
stringBuilder.append(ls);
}
return stringBuilder.toString();
} finally {
reader.close();
}
}
33 Answers
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Read all text from a file
Java 11 added the readString() method to read small files as a String, preserving line terminators:
String content = Files.readString(path, StandardCharsets.US_ASCII);
For versions between Java 7 and 11, here's a compact, robust idiom, wrapped up in a utility method:
static String readFile(String path, Charset encoding)
throws IOException
{
byte[] encoded = Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(path));
return new String(encoded, encoding);
}