All, I am trying to ensure that a file I have open with BufferedReader is closed when I catch an IOException, but it appears as if my BufferedReader object is out of scope in the catch block. public static ArrayList readFiletoArrayList(String fileName, ArrayList fileArrayList) { fileArrayList.removeAll(fileArrayList); try { //open the file for reading BufferedReader fileIn = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName)); // add line by line to array list, until end of file is reached // when buffered reader returns null (todo). while(true){ fileArrayList.add(fileIn.readLine()); } }catch(IOException e){ fileArrayList.removeAll(fileArrayList); fileIn.close(); return fileArrayList; //returned empty. Dealt with in calling code. } } Netbeans complains that it "cannot find symbol fileIn" in the catch block, but I want to ensure that in the case of an IOException that the Reader gets closed. How can I do that without the ugliness of a second try/catch construct around the first? Any tips or pointers as to best practise in this situation is appreciated,