Question

        FileWriter outFile = null;
        try {
            outFile = new FileWriter("member.txt");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
out.println("test");

Running that command, where is the member.txt ? I am using windows vista. UAC enabled so when I run it, I don’t think it’s writing to the txt file. txt file is created however, but it’s empty.

Answer 1

Relative paths in Java IO are relative to current working directory. In Eclipse, that’s usually the project root. You’re also writing to out instead of outFile. Here’s a minor rewrite:

    File file = new File("member.txt");
    FileWriter writer = null;
    try {
        writer = new FileWriter(file);
        writer.write("test");
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace(); // I'd rather declare method with throws IOException and omit this catch.
    } finally {
        if (writer != null) try { writer.close(); } catch (IOException ignore) {}
    }
    System.out.printf("File is located at %s%n", file.getAbsolutePath());

Closing is mandatory since it flushes the written data into the file and releases the file lock.

Needless to say that it’s a poor practice to use relative paths in Java IO. If you can, rather make use of the classpath. ClassLoader#getResource(), getResourceAsStream() and so on.