Lecture – 25
Introduction to File I/O
Introduction
• Data stored in the program are temporary;
– It get lost when the program terminates
• To permanently store the data created in a program,
– Need to save them in a file on a disk or other permanent storage
device
• The file can then be transported and read later by other
programs
Why Use File I/O in OOP?
• Save object data (state) to external files.
• Load data (e.g., configuration, records) at runtime.
• Enables creation of reusable and extensible components.
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Introduction
• File Handling
– Way to handle the files stored on the hard disk
– So that we can, read and write the data in file
– File handling is a way to interact with external files—to either save
data or retrieve it.
• Java provides java.io package
– Contain all class that help in performing input and output operations
on files
• The main purpose of file handling is to:
• Read data from a file (input operation)
• Write data to a file (output operation)
• Example: Reading a list of books from books.txt or writing
exam scores to grades.csv.
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Java provides java.io package
• Java provides java.io package
"Contain all class that help in performing input and output operations on files"
java.io is a built-in Java package that provides classes for:
• File creation
• File reading and writing
• Stream-based input/output (both byte and character streams)
Common classes include:
• File, FileReader, FileWriter
• BufferedReader, BufferedWriter
• FileInputStream, FileOutputStream
• ObjectInputStream, ObjectOutputStream (for saving objects)
(java.io) to provide reusable, ready-to-use classes for performing file operations,
making it easier for developers to store and retrieve data persistently.
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• Stream
Java Streams – A stream is a sequence of data.
– In Java, a stream is composed of bytes
called a stream
–
In java.io package all classes are divided into two Stream represent Source( which generate
type of streams the data in form of streams) and
1- Character Stream(for reading/writing text Destination (which consume or read data
(characters). available on stream)
2- Byte Stream(for reading/writing binary data
(bytes).
What is a Byte Stream?
• It deals with binary data — the raw sequence of 0's and 1's.
• This kind of data could be audio, video, or text files.
• It reads or writes data one byte at a time (1 byte = 8 bits).
Why Use Byte Streams?
• Useful for handling non-text data like images, videos, or any file
with binary content.
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Byte Stream
(100111010111101011101)
• Raw sequence of 0's and 1’s to represent
data BufferedInputStream
• The data belong to either audio, video or BufferedoutputStream
text. ByteArrayInputStream
• Just read/write data in form of 8bits(byte ByteArrayOutputStream
by byte) DataInputStream
• Java classes that handle Byte Stream and DataOutputStream
FileInputStream
They come from three main sources:
FileOutputStream
– java.io.InputStream PrintStream
– java.io.OutputStream
– java.io.RandomAccessFile
Examples of Byte Stream Classes
• BufferedInputStream / BufferedOutputStream: For fast reading/writing
using a buffer.
• ByteArrayInputStream / ByteArrayOutputStream: Works with byte
arrays.
• DataInputStream / DataOutputStream: Allows reading/writing Java
primitive data types (like int, double).
• FileInputStream / FileOutputStream: For reading/writing raw bytes
from/to files.
• PrintStream: Used to print data in a byte stream format (often used with
System.out).
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What is a Character Stream?
• A Character Stream is used to read and write text data
(characters) instead of binary data (like in Byte Stream).
• It is based on Byte Stream but works with 16 bits at a time
(because Java characters are 16-bit, using Unicode).
• Character Stream works only with character data (not binary
files like images or videos).
• It uses Unicode encoding, which can represent characters from
many languages.
• It is ideal for reading/writing text files.
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Character Stream
(11110110 11010101 101010101)
• Character Stream is based on Byte
stream, and bunch of 16 bits are picked BufferedReader
as character BufferedWriter
CharArrayReader
• Data must be characters CharArrayWriter
• Characters are encoded using a character FileReader
encoding scheme such as Unicode FileWriter
InputStreamReader
• The classes that handle Character Stream OutputStreamWriter
and which are descendent of PrintWriter
– java.io.Reader StringReader
– java.io.Writer class StringWriter
Main Java Classes for Character Stream:
• BufferedReader / BufferedWriter: Fast reading/writing using a buffer.
• CharArrayReader / CharArrayWriter: Works with character arrays.
• FileReader / FileWriter: Reads/writes from text files.
• InputStreamReader / OutputStreamWriter: Converts byte streams into
character streams and vice versa.
• PrintWriter: Prints formatted text.
• StringReader / StringWriter: Works with strings as input/output.
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File Class
The File class is used to work with files and folders (directories).It helps you check properties of a
file or directory (like if it exists or not).It also allows you to rename or delete files/folders.
Two Types of File Names:
• Absolute file name(full name)
– Contains a file name with its complete path and drive letter
– Example “c:\book\Welcome.java”
• Relative file name (In relation to current directory
– The complete directory path for a relative file name is omitted
– Example: Welcome.java is a relative file name. If the current working directory is
c:\book
• Do not use absolute file names in your program
File Input and Output
Use the Scanner class for reading text data from a file and the PrintWriter class for writing text data to a file.
• A File object encapsulates the properties of a file or a path
– Does not contain the methods for writing/reading data to/from a file
– Referred to as data input and output, or I/O
• To perform I/O
– Create objects using appropriate Java I/O classes
Writing Data Using PrintWriter
• The java.io.PrintWriter class can be used to create a file and
write data to a text file
• Can use print, println, and printf methods on the PrintWriter
object to write data to a file
Writing Data Using PrintWriter
java.io.PrintWriter
+PrintWriter(filename: String) Creates a PrintWriter for the specified file.
+print(s: String): void Writes a string.
+print(c: char): void Writes a character.
+print(cArray: char[]): void Writes an array of character.
+print(i: int): void Writes an int value.
+print(l: long): void Writes a long value.
+print(f: float): void Writes a float value.
+print(d: double): void Writes a double value.
+print(b: boolean): void Writes a boolean value.
Also contains the overloaded A println method acts like a print method; additionally it
println methods. prints a line separator. The line separator string is defined
Also contains the overloaded by the system. It is \r\n on Windows and \n on Unix.
printf methods.
Try-with-resources
Programmers often forget to close the file. JDK 7 and above provides the
followings new try-with-resources syntax that automatically closes the files.
try (declare and create resources) {
Use the resource to process the file;
}
try( PrintWriter output = new PrintWriter(file); )
{
output.print("John T Smith ");
output.println(90);
output.print("Eric K Jones ");
output.println(85);
}
Reading Data Using Scanner
• To read from keyboard
– Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
• To read from file
– Scanner input = new Scanner(new File(fileName));
Reading Data Using Scanner
java.util.Scanner
+Scanner(source: File) Creates a Scanner object to read data from the specified file.
+Scanner(source: String) Creates a Scanner object to read data from the specified string.
+close() Closes this scanner.
+hasNext(): boolean Returns true if this scanner has another token in its input.
+next(): String Returns next token as a string.
+nextByte(): byte Returns next token as a byte.
+nextShort(): short Returns next token as a short.
+nextInt(): int Returns next token as an int.
+nextLong(): long Returns next token as a long.
+nextFloat(): float Returns next token as a float.
+nextDouble(): double Returns next token as a double.
+useDelimiter(pattern: String): Sets this scanner’s delimiting pattern.
Scanner
public static void main(String[] args){
try{
File file = new File("File/name1.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(file);
while(input.hasNext()){
String fName = input.next();
String mName = input.next();
String lName = input.next();
int age = input.nextInt();
System.out.println(fName+" "+mName+" "+lName+" "+age);
}
input.close();
}
catch(IOException e){
