Java Writer

It is an abstract class for writing to character streams. The methods that a subclass must
implement are write(char[], int, int), flush(), and close(). Most subclasses will override some
of the methods defined here to provide higher efficiency, functionality or both.

Fields

Modifier and Type Field Description

protected Object lock The object used to synchronize operations on this stream.

Constructor

Modifier Constructor Description

It creates a new character-stream writer whose critical sections
protected Writer()
will synchronize on the writer itself.
Writer(Object It creates a new character-stream writer whose critical sections
protected
lock) will synchronize on the given object.

Methods

Modifier and
Method Description
Type
It appends the specified character to this
Writer append(char c)
writer.
It appends the specified character sequence
Writer append(CharSequence csq)
to this writer
append(CharSequence csq, int It appends a subsequence of the specified
Writer
start, int end) character sequence to this writer.
abstract void close() It closes the stream, flushing it first.
abstract void flush() It flushes the stream.
void write(char[] cbuf) It writes an array of characters.
abstract void write(char[] cbuf, int off, int len) It writes a portion of an array of characters.
void write(int c) It writes a single character.
void write(String str) It writes a string.
void write(String str, int off, int len) It writes a portion of a string.

Java Writer Example

import java.io.*;

public class WriterExample {

 public static void main(String[] args) {

try {

Writer w = new FileWriter("output.txt");

String content = "I love my country";

w.write(content);

w.close();

System.out.println("Done");

} catch (IOException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

Output:

Done

output.txt:

I love my country

Java Reader
Java Reader is an abstract class for reading character streams. The only methods that a
subclass must implement are read(char[], int, int) and close(). Most subclasses, however, will
override some of the methods to provide higher efficiency, additional functionality, or both.

Some of the implementation class are BufferedReader, CharArrayReader, FilterReader,

InputStreamReader, PipedReader, StringReader

Fields

Modifier and Type Field Description

protected Object lock The object used to synchronize operations on this stream.

Constructor
Modifier Constructor Description
It creates a new character-stream reader whose critical sections
protected Reader()
will synchronize on the reader itself.
Reader(Object It creates a new character-stream reader whose critical sections
protected
lock) will synchronize on the given object.

Methods

Modifier and
Method Description
Type
It closes the stream and releases any system
abstract void close()
resources associated with it.
void mark(int readAheadLimit) It marks the present position in the stream.
It tells whether this stream supports the mark()
Boolean markSupported()
operation.
int read() It reads a single character.
int read(char[] cbuf) It reads characters into an array.
read(char[] cbuf, int off,
abstract int It reads characters into a portion of an array.
int len)
It attempts to read characters into the specified
int read(CharBuffer target)
character buffer.
Boolean ready() It tells whether this stream is ready to be read.
void reset() It resets the stream.
long skip(long n) It skips characters.

Example
import java.io.*;

public class ReaderExample {

public static void main(String[] args) {

try {

Reader reader = new FileReader("file.txt");

int data = reader.read();

while (data != -1) {

System.out.print((char) data);

data = reader.read();
 }

reader.close();

} catch (Exception ex) {

System.out.println(ex.getMessage());

file.txt:

I love my country

Output:

I love my country

Java FileWriter Class

Java FileWriter class is used to write character-oriented data to a file. It is character-oriented
class which is used for file handling in java.

Unlike FileOutputStream class, you don't need to convert string into byte array because it
provides method to write string directly.

Java FileWriter class declaration

Let's see the declaration for Java.io.FileWriter class:

1. public class FileWriter extends OutputStreamWriter

Constructors of FileWriter class

Constructor Description
FileWriter(String file) Creates a new file. It gets file name in string.
FileWriter(File file) Creates a new file. It gets file name in File object.
Methods of FileWriter class
Method Description
void write(String text) It is used to write the string into FileWriter.
void write(char c) It is used to write the char into FileWriter.
void write(char[] c) It is used to write char array into FileWriter.
void flush() It is used to flushes the data of FileWriter.
void close() It is used to close the FileWriter.

Java FileWriter Example

In this example, we are writing the data in the file testout.txt using Java FileWriter class.

package com.javatpoint;

import java.io.FileWriter;

public class FileWriterExample {

public static void main(String args[]){

try{

FileWriter fw=new FileWriter("D:\\testout.txt");

fw.write("Welcome to javaTpoint.");

fw.close();

}catch(Exception e){System.out.println(e);}

System.out.println("Success...");

Output:

Success...

testout.txt:

Welcome to javaTpoint.

Java FileReader Class

Java FileReader class is used to read data from the file. It returns data in byte format like
FileInputStream class.

It is character-oriented class which is used for file handling in java.

Java FileReader class declaration

Let's see the declaration for Java.io.FileReader class:

1. public class FileReader extends InputStreamReader

Constructors of FileReader class

Constructor Description
FileReader(String It gets filename in string. It opens the given file in read mode. If file
file) doesn't exist, it throws FileNotFoundException.
FileReader(File It gets filename in file instance. It opens the given file in read mode. If
file) file doesn't exist, it throws FileNotFoundException.

Methods of FileReader class

Method Description
int read() It is used to return a character in ASCII form. It returns -1 at the end of file.
void close() It is used to close the FileReader class.

Java FileReader Example

In this example, we are reading the data from the text file testout.txt using Java FileReader
class.

package com.javatpoint;

import java.io.FileReader;

public class FileReaderExample {

public static void main(String args[])throws Exception{

FileReader fr=new FileReader("D:\\testout.txt");

 int i;

while((i=fr.read())!=-1)

System.out.print((char)i);

fr.close();

Here, we are assuming that you have following data in "testout.txt" file:

Welcome to javaTpoint.

Output:

Welcome to javaTpoint.

Java - RandomAccessFile
This class is used for reading and writing to random access file. A random access file behaves
like a large array of bytes. There is a cursor implied to the array called file pointer, by moving
the cursor we do the read write operations. If end-of-file is reached before the desired number
of byte has been read than EOFException is thrown. It is a type of IOException.

Constructor

Constructor Description
Creates a random access file stream to read from, and
RandomAccessFile(File file,
optionally to write to, the file specified by the File
String mode)
argument.
RandomAccessFile(String name, Creates a random access file stream to read from, and
String mode) optionally to write to, a file with the specified name.

Method

Modifier and
Method Method
Type
It closes this random access file stream and releases any
void close()
system resources associated with the stream.
It returns the unique FileChannel object associated with
FileChannel getChannel()
this file.
int readInt() It reads a signed 32-bit integer from this file.
String readUTF() It reads in a string from this file.
void seek(long pos) It sets the file-pointer offset, measured from the
 beginning of this file, at which the next read or write
occurs.
It converts the double argument to a long using the
writeDouble(double doubleToLongBits method in class Double, and then
void
v) writes that long value to the file as an eight-byte quantity,
high byte first.
It converts the float argument to an int using the
floatToIntBits method in class Float, and then writes that
void writeFloat(float v)
int value to the file as a four-byte quantity, high byte
first.
void write(int b) It writes the specified byte to this file.
int read() It reads a byte of data from this file.
long length() It returns the length of this file.

Example
import java.io.IOException;

import java.io.RandomAccessFile;

public class RandomAccessFileExample {

static final String FILEPATH ="myFile.TXT";

public static void main(String[] args) {

try {

System.out.println(new String(readFromFile(FILEPATH, 0, 18)));

writeToFile(FILEPATH, "I love my country and my people", 31);

} catch (IOException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

private static byte[] readFromFile(String filePath, int position, int size)

throws IOException {
 RandomAccessFile file = new RandomAccessFile(filePath, "r");

file.seek(position);

byte[] bytes = new byte[size];

file.read(bytes);

file.close();

return bytes;

private static void writeToFile(String filePath, String data, int position)

throws IOException {

RandomAccessFile file = new RandomAccessFile(filePath, "rw");

file.seek(position);

file.write(data.getBytes());

file.close();

The myFile.TXT contains text "This class is used for reading and writing to random access
file."

After running the program it will contains

This class is used for reading I love my country and my people