Question

I’m sure there is a fairly simple answer to this question, so here we go.

I’m trying to use a FileWriter to write text to a file. My program reads text in from an already existing file, specified by the user and then asks whether to print the text to the console or to a new file, also to be named by the user.

I believe my problem is with passing the FileWriter to the “FileOrConsole” method. Am I not passing or declaring the FileWriter in the “FileOrConsole” method correctly? The file is always created but nothing is written to it.

Here is the code:

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class Reader {

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    Scanner s = null, input = new Scanner(System.in);
    BufferedWriter out = null;

    try {
        System.out.println("Would you like to read from a file?");
        String answer = input.nextLine();

        while (answer.startsWith("y")) {
            System.out.println("What file would you like to read from?");
            String file = input.nextLine();
            s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file)));

            System.out
                    .println("Would you like to print file output to console or file?");
            FileOrConsole(input.nextLine(), s, input, out);
            System.out
                    .println("\nWould you like to read from the file again?");
            answer = input.nextLine();
        }
        if (!answer.equalsIgnoreCase("yes")) {
            System.out.println("Goodbye!");
        }

    } catch (IOException e) {
        System.out.println("ERROR! File not found!");
        // e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        if (s != null) {
            s.close();
        }
        if (out != null) {
            out.close();
        }
    }
}

public static void FileOrConsole(String response, Scanner s, Scanner input,
        BufferedWriter out) {
    if (response.equalsIgnoreCase("console")) {
        while (s.hasNext()) {
            System.out.println(s.nextLine());
        }
    } else if (response.equalsIgnoreCase("file")) {
        System.out.println("Name of output file?");
        response = input.nextLine();
        try {
            out = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(response));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        while (s.hasNext()) {
            try {
                out.write(s.nextLine());
                out.newLine();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        try {
            out.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    } else {
        System.out.println("Sorry, invalid response. File or console?");
        response = input.nextLine();
        FileOrConsole(response, s, input, out);
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

you make classic error forgetting that parameters passed by value in case of java it is a value of the reference. The thing is that your assignment

out = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(response));

actually does not change the variable declared in main() it stays null

BufferedWriter out = null;
and then in finally it skips the close() by the if(out==null)
and as it is Buffered and you do no flush nothing is written to file.
what you got to do is out.close(); in side the FileOrConsole method call

OR

do the out = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(response));
outside of it. You choose 🙂