Java File Handling, what did I do wrong?
- by Urda
Wrote up a basic file handler for a Java Homework assignment, and when I got the assignment back I had some notes about failing to catch a few instances:
Buffer from file could have been null.
File was not found
File stream wasn't closed
Here is the block of code that is used for opening a file:
/**
* Create a Filestream, Buffer, and a String to store the Buffer.
*/
FileInputStream fin = null;
BufferedReader buffRead = null;
String loadedString = null;
/** Try to open the file from user input */
try
{
fin = new FileInputStream(programPath + fileToParse);
buffRead = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fin));
loadedString = buffRead.readLine();
fin.close();
}
/** Catch the error if we can't open the file */
catch(IOException e)
{
System.err.println("CRITICAL: Unable to open text file!");
System.err.println("Exiting!");
System.exit(-1);
}
The one comment I had from him was that fin.close(); needed to be in a finally block, which I did not have at all. But I thought that the way I have created the try/catch it would have prevented an issue with the file not opening.
Let me be clear on a few things: This is not for a current assignment (not trying to get someone to do my own work), I have already created my project and have been graded on it. I did not fully understand my Professor's reasoning myself. Finally, I do not have a lot of Java experience, so I was a little confused why my catch wasn't good enough.
