Java FileReader Class getEncoding() Method with Examples

Last Updated : 02 Feb, 2022

The getEncoding() method of FileReader Class in Java is used to return the name of the current stream's character encoding. If the stream is utilizing a historical encoding name, it will be returned; otherwise, the canonical encoding name of the stream will be returned.

Syntax:

public String getEncoding()

Returns: This method returns the encoding's historical name, or null if the stream has been closed.

Example: We generated two file readers, input1 and input2, in the preceding example. The character encoding is not specified in input1. As a result, the default character encoding is returned by the getEncoding() function. The character encoding, UTF8, is specified by input2. As a result, the getEncoding() function returns the character encoding supplied.

Java

// Java Program to demonstrate the working of 
// getEncoding() Method of FileReader Class

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try {
            // Creates a FileReader with the encoding set to
            // default.
            FileReader input1 = new FileReader(
                "C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Desktop\\input.txt");

            // Creates a FileReader with the specified
            // encoding.
            FileReader input2 = new FileReader(
                "C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Desktop\\input.txt",
                Charset.forName("UTF8"));

            // The file reader's character encoding is
            // returned.
            System.out.println(
                "Character encoding of input1: "
                + input1.getEncoding());
            System.out.println(
                "Character encoding of input2: "
                + input2.getEncoding());

            // Closing Reader
            input1.close();
            input2.close();
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            e.getStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Assume we have a text file named input.txt that contains the following information. This file will be utilized as a source of data in our example application.