"cannot find symbol" when trying to close I/O objects

Question

public static int howMany(String FileName)
{
    BufferedReader br = null;

    try
    {
        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(FileName);
        DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
        br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(dis));
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e)
    {
        System.out.print("FILE DOESN'T EXIST");
    }
    finally
    {
        fis.close();
        dis.close();
        br.close();
    }


    String input;
    int count = 0;

    try
    {

        while ((input = br.readLine()) != null)
        {
            count++;
        }

    }
    catch (IOException e) 
    {
        System.out.print("I/O STREAM EXCEPTION");
    }


    return count;
}

For some reason, I cannot close any I/O objects. fis.close(), dis.close(), br.close() all give me cannot find symbol even though I imported all the I/O library (import java.io.*;) and initiated all the objects.

Answer 1

 BufferedReader br = null;
 FileInputStream fis =null;
 DataInputStream dis null;
 try {
     fis = new FileInputStream(FileName);
     dis = new DataInputStream(fis);
     br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(dis));
 }

Put them out of your try block, so that your finally block can see the variables.

Answer 2

You have to declare all the streams outside the try block, otherwise they won't be visible in the finally block:

FileInputStream fis = null;
DataInputStream dis = null;
BufferedReader br = null;

Alternatively, you could use Java 7's new try-with-resources syntax to automate resource closing.