Question

I am learning how to factor my codes so I thought it would be nice to create a function solely for retrieving a char from the input file. This is what I have in mind:

    public char getChar( String infile )
    {
       try
       {
           BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader( new FileReader( infile ));
           int ch = in.read();
           // do some decision making
           return (char)ch;
       }
       catch( IOException e )
       {
           System.out.println( e.getMessage() );
           System.exit(1);
       } 
     }

Then in the constructor or some another function I can use it like this:

    public constructor( String infile )
    {
        char newChar = getChar( infile ); 
        // some lines of codes later.. need another character
        newChar = getChar( infile );
    }

P.S. I haven’t test these codes so it might contain so errors, but i hope my idea is understandable.

Please tell me if this is a good/bad idea or this kind of factoring can be done in different ways. Thank you for reading.

EDIT: Yes, I do want the BufferedReader to get the next char in line.. and not start over

Ex: infile contains a String like this: “ABC”
thisShouldBeA = getChar( infile );
thisSoundBeB = getChar( inflie );

Answer 1

class Helper {
  private BufferedReader in;

  Helper(String infile) {
    this.in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(infile));
  }

  char getChar() {
    try {
      return in.read();
    } catch (IOException e) {
       System.out.println( e.getMessage() );
       System.exit(1);
    }
  }

  void close() {
    this.in.close();
  }
}

class Other {
  void something(String infile) {
    Helper helper = new Helper(infile);
    char newChar = helper.getChar();
    char anotherNewChar = helper.getChar();

    helper.close();
   }
}