How do I create a Java string from the contents of

Question

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();
    }
}

Answer 1

import java.nio.file.Files;

.......

 String readFile(String filename) {
            File f = new File(filename);
            try {
                byte[] bytes = Files.readAllBytes(f.toPath());
                return new String(bytes,"UTF-8");
            } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            return "";
    }

Answer 2

In one line (Java 8), assuming you have a Reader:

String sMessage = String.join("\n", reader.lines().collect(Collectors.toList()));

Answer 3

From this page a very lean solution:

Scanner scanner = new Scanner( new File("poem.txt") );
String text = scanner.useDelimiter("\\A").next();
scanner.close(); // Put this call in a finally block

or

Scanner scanner = new Scanner( new File("poem.txt"), "UTF-8" );
String text = scanner.useDelimiter("\\A").next();
scanner.close(); // Put this call in a finally block

If you want to set the charset

Answer 4

String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get("readMe.txt")), "UTF-8");

since java 7 you can do it this way.

Answer 5

Gathered all the possible ways to read the File as String from Disk or Network.

• Guava: Google using classes Resources, Files

  static Charset charset = com.google.common.base.Charsets.UTF_8;
  public static String guava_ServerFile( URL url ) throws IOException {
      return Resources.toString( url, charset );
  }
  public static String guava_DiskFile( File file ) throws IOException {
      return Files.toString( file, charset );
  }
  

---

• APACHE - COMMONS IO using classes IOUtils, FileUtils

  static Charset encoding = org.apache.commons.io.Charsets.UTF_8;
  public static String commons_IOUtils( URL url ) throws IOException {
      java.io.InputStream in = url.openStream();
      try {
          return IOUtils.toString( in, encoding );
      } finally {
          IOUtils.closeQuietly(in);
      }
  }
  public static String commons_FileUtils( File file ) throws IOException {
      return FileUtils.readFileToString( file, encoding );
      /*List<String> lines = FileUtils.readLines( fileName, encoding );
      return lines.stream().collect( Collectors.joining("\n") );*/
  }
  

---

• Java 8 BufferReader using Stream API

  public static String streamURL_Buffer( URL url ) throws IOException {
      java.io.InputStream source = url.openStream();
      BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( source ) );
      //List<String> lines = reader.lines().collect( Collectors.toList() );
      return reader.lines().collect( Collectors.joining( System.lineSeparator() ) );
  }
  public static String streamFile_Buffer( File file ) throws IOException {
      BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader( new FileReader( file ) );
      return reader.lines().collect(Collectors.joining(System.lineSeparator()));
  }
  

---

• Scanner Class with regex \A. which matches the beginning of input.

  static String charsetName = java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8.toString();
  public static String streamURL_Scanner( URL url ) throws IOException {
      java.io.InputStream source = url.openStream();
      Scanner scanner = new Scanner(source, charsetName).useDelimiter("\\A");
      return scanner.hasNext() ? scanner.next() : "";
  }
  public static String streamFile_Scanner( File file ) throws IOException {
      Scanner scanner = new Scanner(file, charsetName).useDelimiter("\\A");
      return scanner.hasNext() ? scanner.next() : "";
  }
  

---

• Java 7 (java.nio.file.Files.readAllBytes)

  public static String getDiskFile_Java7( File file ) throws IOException {
      byte[] readAllBytes = java.nio.file.Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get( file.getAbsolutePath() ));
      return new String( readAllBytes );
  }
  

---

• BufferedReader using InputStreamReader.

  public static String getDiskFile_Lines( File file ) throws IOException {
      StringBuffer text = new StringBuffer();
      FileInputStream fileStream = new FileInputStream( file );
      BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( fileStream ) );
      for ( String line; (line = br.readLine()) != null; )
          text.append( line + System.lineSeparator() );
      return text.toString();
  }
  

---

Example with main method to access the above methods.

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    String fileName = "E:/parametarisation.csv";
    File file = new File( fileName );

    String fileStream = commons_FileUtils( file );
            // guava_DiskFile( file );
            // streamFile_Buffer( file );
            // getDiskFile_Java7( file );
            // getDiskFile_Lines( file );
    System.out.println( " File Over Disk : \n"+ fileStream );


    try {
        String src = "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.js";
        URL url = new URL( src );

        String urlStream = commons_IOUtils( url );
                // guava_ServerFile( url );
                // streamURL_Scanner( url );
                // streamURL_Buffer( url );
        System.out.println( " File Over Network : \n"+ urlStream );
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

---

@see

• Ways to convert an InputStream to a String

Answer 6

Java attempts to be extremely general and flexible in all it does. As a result, something which is relatively simple in a scripting language (your code would be replaced with "open(file).read()" in python) is a lot more complicated. There doesn't seem to be any shorter way of doing it, except using an external library (like Willi aus Rohr mentioned). Your options:

• Use an external library.
• Copy this code into all your projects.
• Create your own mini-library which contains functions you use often.

Your best bet is probably the 2nd one, as it has the least dependencies.