In a tab delimited file every line or record has the same number of fields that are separated by the tab character.
- In the following java program,
- We read the records or lines in a loop
- For each record, we split the line on the tab character forming an array.
- Then we format the fields according to the data type (e..g String, int, double etc)
- Finally we print the data thus read from file to console.
Here is how the program looks like:
package com.kushal.io;
/**
* @Author Kushal Paudyal
* www.sanjaal.com/java
* Last Modfied On: 2010-07-30
*
* TabSeparatedFileReader.java
* This class reads tab separated values (4 columns) from a file
* and prints the values to the console.
*/
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
public class TabSeparatedFileReader {
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
/**
* Source file to read data from.
*/
String dataFileName = "C:/temp/myTabSeparatedFile.txt";
/**
* Creating a buffered reader to read the file
*/
BufferedReader bReader = new BufferedReader(
new FileReader(dataFileName));
String line;
/**
* Looping the read block until all lines in the file are read.
*/
while ((line = bReader.readLine()) != null) {
/**
* Splitting the content of tabbed separated line
*/
String datavalue[] = line.split("\t");
String value1 = datavalue[0];
String value2 = datavalue[1];
int value3 = Integer.parseInt(datavalue[2]);
double value4 = Double.parseDouble(datavalue[3]);
/**
* Printing the value read from file to the console
*/
System.out.println(value1 + "\t" + value2 + "\t" + value3 + "\t"
+ value4);
}
bReader.close();
}
/*
* SANJAAL CORPS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE
* SUITABILITY OF THE SOFTWARE, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
* LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
* PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SANJAAL CORPS SHALL NOT BE
* LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF USING,
* MODIFYING OR DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS DERIVATIVES.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT DESIGNED OR INTENDED FOR USE OR RESALE AS ON-LINE
* CONTROL EQUIPMENT IN HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS REQUIRING FAIL-SAFE
* PERFORMANCE, SUCH AS IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT
* NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, DIRECT LIFE
* SUPPORT MACHINES, OR WEAPONS SYSTEMS, IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE
* SOFTWARE COULD LEAD DIRECTLY TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE
* PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE ("HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES"). SANJAAL CORPS
* SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR
* HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES.
*/
}
Here is the output of the program in console:
Here is the input file:
