How do I save a String to a text file using Java?

Question

In Java, I have text from a text field in a String variable called "text".

How can I save the contents of the "text" variable to a file?

Answer 1

You could do this:

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

class WriteText
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {   
        try {
            String text = "Your sample content to save in a text file.";
            BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("sample.txt"));
            out.write(text);
            out.close();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            System.out.println("Exception ");       
        }

        return ;
    }
};

Answer 2

Apache Commons IO contains some great methods for doing this, in particular FileUtils contains the following method:

static void writeStringToFile(File file, String data) 

which allows you to write text to a file in one method call:

FileUtils.writeStringToFile(new File("test.txt"), "Hello File");

You might also want to consider specifying the encoding for the file as well.

Answer 3

Using Java 7:

public static void writeToFile(String text, String targetFilePath) throws IOException
{
    Path targetPath = Paths.get(targetFilePath);
    byte[] bytes = text.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    Files.write(targetPath, bytes, StandardOpenOption.CREATE);
}

Answer 4

If you're simply outputting text, rather than any binary data, the following will work:

PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter("filename.txt");

Then, write your String to it, just like you would to any output stream:

out.println(text);

You'll need exception handling, as ever. Be sure to call out.close() when you've finished writing.

If you are using Java 7 or later, you can use the "try-with-resources statement" which will automatically close your PrintStream when you are done with it (ie exit the block) like so:

try (PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter("filename.txt")) {
    out.println(text);
}

You will still need to explicitly throw the java.io.FileNotFoundException as before.