Question

public static String[] words = null;

public static String readFile(String name) {
    int i = 0;
    try {
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(name));
        try {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            String line = br.readLine();

            while (line != null) {
                i++;
                sb.append(sb.toString());
                sb.append("\n");
                line = br.readLine();
            }
            String everything = sb.toString();
            words = everything.split("\\n");//not sure if this is right...
        } finally {
            br.close();
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.getMessage();
    }
    return "Loaded " + i + " words";
}

I’m basically trying to read a file with data on each line. On each line in the file I’m trying to insert into the array. May someone help me figure out what I’m doing wrong here?

Answer 1

The problem is that:

  while (line != null) {
            i++;
            sb.append(sb.toString());
            sb.append("\n");
            line = br.readLine();
        }

sb is never actually appended anything, it is just appending empty strings over and over again.

should be:

  while (line != null) {
            i++;
            sb.append(line);
            sb.append("\n");
            line = br.readLine();
        }