Question

how do I get the read txt file into the main class?

//main class
public class mainClass {

public static void main(String[]args) {
    load method = new load("Monster");
}
}





//scanner class

public class load {

  public static void loader(String... aArgs) throws FileNotFoundException {
    load parser = new load("resources/monsters/human/humanSerf.txt");
    parser.processLineByLine();
    log("Done.");
  }

  public load(String aFileName){
    fFile = new File(aFileName);  
  }

  public final void processLineByLine() throws FileNotFoundException {
    //Note that FileReader is used, not File, since File is not Closeable
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(new FileReader(fFile));
    try {
      //first use a Scanner to get each line
      while ( scanner.hasNextLine() ){
        processLine( scanner.nextLine() );
      }
    }
    finally {

      scanner.close();
    }
  }

  public void processLine(String aLine){
    //use a second Scanner to parse the content of each line 
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(aLine);
    scanner.useDelimiter("=");
    if ( scanner.hasNext() ){
      String name = scanner.next();
      String value = scanner.next();
      log("Stat is : " + quote(name.trim()) + ", and the value is : " + quote(value.trim()) );
    }
    else {
      log("Empty or invalid line. Unable to process.");
    }
  }

  public final File fFile;

  public static void log(Object aObject){
    System.out.println(String.valueOf(aObject));
  }

  public String quote(String aText){
    String QUOTE = "'";
    return QUOTE + aText + QUOTE;
  }
} 

Which method do I call from the main class and what variables do I return from that method if I want the text from the file. If anyone has a website that can help me learn scanner(got this source code of the internet and only sort of understand it from JavaPractises and the sun tutorials) that would be great. thanks

Answer 1

First, you probably want to follow standard Java naming conventions – use public class MainClass instead of mainClass.

Second, for your methods, the public has a specific purpose. See here and here. You generally want to label methods as public only as necessary (in jargon, this is known as encapsulation).

For your question – in the Load class, you can append all the text from the file to a String, and add a public getter method in Load which will return that when called.

Add this at the start of Load:

public class Load {
    private String fileText;
    // ... rest of class

And add this getter method to the Load class. Yes, you could simply mark fileText as public, but that defeats the purpose of Object-Oriented Programming.

public getFileText(String aFileName){
    return fileText;
}

Finally, use this new method for log. Note that there is no need to use Object.

private static void log(String line) {
    System.out.println(line);
    fileText += aObject;
}

You can now get the read file into the main class by calling method.getFileText()