Question

What is the difference between these 2 methods used to read characters from a file.

FIRST

FileReader fr = new FileReader( new File( "file.txt") );
int x = 0;
while( ( x = fr.read() ) != -1 ) {
    System.out.println( (char) x );
}

SECOND

BufferedReader bfr = new BufferedReader( new FileReader( new File( "file.txt") ) );
int x = 0;
while( ( x = bfr.read() ) != -1 ) {
    System.out.println( (char) x );
}

Both the codes read the characters from the file and write it on the console.

Which one of the method is more efficient and why ? Or it’s the same thing ?

Answer 1

Thus spake the docs:

In general, each read request made of a Reader causes a corresponding read request to be made of the underlying character or byte stream. It is therefore advisable to wrap a BufferedReader around any Reader whose read() operations may be costly, such as FileReaders and InputStreamReaders.