Java - FileReader Class

Introduction

The Java FileReader class is a convenience class for reading character files.Following are the important points about FileReader −

• The constructors of this class assume that the default character encoding and the default byte-buffer size are appropriate.

• FileReader is meant for reading streams of characters. For reading streams of raw bytes, use FileInputStream.

Class declaration

Following is the declaration for Java.io.FileReader class −

public class FileReader
   extends InputStreamReader

Field

Following are the fields for Java.io.FileReader class −

• protected Object lock − This is the object used to synchronize operations on this stream.

Class constructors

Once you have FileReader object in hand then there is a list of helper methods which can be used to manipulate the files.

Example - Using FileReader(String fileName) to Read a File

The following example shows the usage of Java FileReader class. We've created a File reference with name Hello1.txt to be created in current directory. Then we're creating a new file using createNewFile(). Now a FileWriter object is created by passing the file reference created earlier and some content is written to the file. Using FileReader() class, we're reading that file and its contents are printed.

FileReaderDemo.java

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;

public class FileReaderDemo {

   public static void main(String args[])throws IOException {
      File file = new File("Hello1.txt");
      
      // creates the file
      file.createNewFile();
      
      // creates a FileWriter Object
      FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file); 
      
      // Writes the content to the file
      writer.write("This\n is\n an\n example\n"); 
      writer.flush();
      writer.close();

      // Creates a FileReader Object
      FileReader fr = new FileReader(file); 
      char [] a = new char[50];
      fr.read(a);   // reads the content to the array
      
      for(char c : a)
         System.out.print(c);   // prints the characters one by one
      fr.close();
   }
}

Output

This
is
an
example

Example - Using FileReader(String fileName) to Read a File

The following example shows the usage of Java FileReader class.

FileReaderDemo.java

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

public class FileReaderDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String fileName = "example.txt"; // File to be read

        try (FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(fileName)) {
            int character;
            while ((character = fileReader.read()) != -1) {
                System.out.print((char) character); // Print each character
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("An error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

Output(if example.txt contains "Hello, World!")

Hello, World!

Explanation

• Creates a FileReader object using new FileReader(fileName), which opens "example.txt" for reading.

• Reads the file character by character using fileReader.read(). The method returns an integer (-1 when the end of the file is reached). Characters are cast from int to char before printing.

• Uses try-with-resources to ensure that FileReader is automatically closed after execution.

• Handles exceptions properly using catch(IOException e), which prevents crashes if the file is missing.

Example - Read a File Character by Character

The following example shows the usage of Java FileReader class. We've created a File reference with name Hello1.txt to be created in the current directory. Then we're creating a new file using createNewFile(). Now a FileWriter object is created by passing the file reference created earlier and some content is written to the file. Using FileReader() class, we're reading that file and its contents are printed.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;

public class FileReaderDemo {

   public static void main(String args[])throws IOException {
      File file = new File("Hello1.txt");
      
      // creates the file
      file.createNewFile();
      
      // creates a FileWriter Object
      FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file); 
      
      // Writes the content to the file
      writer.write("This\n is\n an\n example\n"); 
      writer.flush();
      writer.close();

      // Creates a FileReader Object
      FileReader fr = new FileReader(file); 
      char [] a = new char[50];
      fr.read(a);   // reads the content to the array
      
      for(char c : a)
         System.out.print(c);   // prints the characters one by one
      fr.close();
   }
}

Output

This
is
an
example