Accessing .txt file inside my java application and showing it to the user directly

Question

Is there any way to show user, content of the .txt file directly stored in my jar application package (org/something/something.txt) without storing it on users pc or any temp. file ?I want to access it directly. Shoud i access it as a resource?Or as normal file?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

You need to use the getResourceAsStream() method to obtain an InputStream.
Then, you can read the text by using BufferedReader

InputStream inputStream = 
        getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("file.txt");
BufferedReader buf = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
String line = "";

while((line = buf.readLine()) != null){
    // something 
}

Shoud i access it as a resource?Or as normal file?

In my limited knowledge, it depends. If you do not want the file to change at all, embed it into the jar. Else, keep it as a normal file on disk.

Do read this: Java resource as file

Thank you for answer and info.Worked well :) – Tomas Bisciak Nov 06 '13 at 16:10 — Tomas Bisciak, Nov 06 '13 at 16:10

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 06 '13 at 15:58

1

Use something like that

InputStream inputStream = 
        getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("file.txt");

answered Nov 06 '13 at 15:58

Dario

1,963
17
29

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '13 at 15:58

1

Yes, you can store .txt files in .jar files.

Edit: Dario's answer.

answered Nov 06 '13 at 15:58

slanecek

806
1
8
23

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 06 '13 at 16:00

1

No, do not retrieve the file as a resource. This will effectively prevent you from doing anything else with it. The content isn't loaded properly, which is all too indicative of trouble.

answered Nov 06 '13 at 16:00

Joe

11
1

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 06 '13 at 16:09

If the file is in src/org/something/something.txt

you can call it as follows

public static void main(String[] args) {


        InputStream inputStream = null;
    BufferedReader br = null;

    try {
                inputStream = AClassYouAreRunningThisFrom.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("org/something/something.txt");   
        br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); 
        String line;
        while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
            sb.append(line+"\n");
        }
        System.out.println(sb.toString());

    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        if (inputStream != null) {
            try {
                inputStream.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        if (br != null) {
            try {
                br.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
    }

Accessing .txt file inside my java application and showing it to the user directly

5 Answers5