Java FileReader Example

Java has several File IO classes for reading and writing into the files. Each class has its own advantages. This example illustrates how to use FileReader for reading a text file. The main purpose of using the FileReader is to read the text content from a file where FileInputStream is used for reading the stream of bytes from a file. In short, ASCII is a text file which will be read by using the FileReader and binary file will be read using the FileInputStream. If the text file is very huge, you could use the BufferedReader on top of the FileReader to improve the performance.

Lets look at the simple example on how to use FileReader class.

FileReader Example

package javabeat.net.core;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * FileReader Example
 *
 * @author Krishna
 *
 */
public class FileReaderExample {
	public static void main (String args[]) throws IOException{
		//Initialize char array
		char[] chars = new char[100];
		char[] chars1 = new char[100];

		//Create File object
		File file = new File("TextFile.txt");

		//Create FileReader instance
		FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(file);

		//Read characters and assign to character array
		fileReader.read(chars);
		System.out.println(chars);

		//Close the stream
		fileReader.close();

		//Reading through character
		fileReader = new FileReader(file);
		int character = fileReader.read();
		while (character != -1){
			System.out.println(character);
			character = fileReader.read();
		}

		//Close the stream
		fileReader.close();
	}
}

TextFile.txt

Reading the text content using FileReader!!

Output…

Reading the text content using FileReader!!
82
101
97
100
105
110
103
32
116
104
101
32
116
101
120
116
32
99
111
110
116
101
110
116
32
117
115
105
110
103
32
70
105
108
101
82
101
97
100
101
114
33
33