cannot find symbol class IOException [duplicate]

Question

public void populateNotesFromFile()
{
    try{
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED));
        String fileNotes = reader.readLine();

        while(fileNotes != null){
            notes.add(fileNotes);
            fileNotes = reader.readLine();
        }
        reader.close();
    }
    catch (IOException e){
        System.err.println("The desired file " + DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED + " has problems being read from");
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e){
        System.err.println("Unable to open " + DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED);
    }

    //make sure we have one note
    if (notes.size() == 0){
        notes.add("There are no notes stored in your note book");
    }       
}

Whenever i compile the above i get a message saying cannot find symbol class IOException e

can someone tell me how to fix it please :d

thanks

Answer 1

IOException is a class from the java.io package, so in order to use it, you should add an import declaration to your code. import java.io.*; (at the very top of the java file, between the package name and your class declaration)

FileNotFoundException is a IOException. It's a specialisation of IOException. Once you have caught the IOException, the flow of the program will never get to the point of checking for a more specific IOException. Just swap these two, to test for the more specific case first (FileNotFound) and then handle (catch) any other possible IOExceptions.

Answer 2

You need

import java.io;

at the top of your file.

Also, FileNotFoundException needs to be above IOException since it's a subclass of IOException.