file size too big for java

Question

My program reads in text files of various sizes. It then takes the numbers from the text file and creates array lists based on the numbers. The largest file i plan on using is 286,040 KB. When I run my program and it reads the file, my program stops working.

How do I know what size is the maximum my java program can handle? Is there a way of computing how big a size a file my java program can handle?

Also, what are the best suggestions for making my program be able to hold array lists of such a large size? I have heard of hash tables, however; I have not been able to full understand the concept.

Per Request, I'm adding how I upload the file:

String name = getFileName();
Scanner scanDaily = new Scanner(new File(name));

public static String getFileName()
{ //getFileName
    Scanner getName = new Scanner (System.in);
    System.out.println("Please input File Name");
    String fileName = getName.nextLine();
    return fileName;    
}  //getFileName

Update : Thank you to those who responded, its been very helpful

New problem

I now want to read the numbers from the file into an arraylist

          String name = getFileName();
    FileReader f= new FileReader(new File(name));
        BufferedReader bf=new BufferedReader(f);
        Scanner sc=new Scanner(bf);

    ArrayList<Double> ID = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> Contract = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> Date = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> Open = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> High = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> Low = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> Close = new ArrayList<Double>();
    ArrayList<Double> Volume = new ArrayList<Double>();

    int rows = 8;
    int counter1 = 0;

    //Update code to prompt user for file
    ArrayList<Double> list = new ArrayList<Double>();

    while (scanDaily.hasNext())
    { //while
        double value = scanDaily.nextDouble();
        DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat("#.#####");
        df.format(value);
        list.add(value);
    }  //while

before I used a scanner to read my file, and that scanner was named scandaily. Now that I have a filereader and a buffered reader, which one do i use to go through my txt file?

Answer 1

Do you really need to have the whole file in memory ?

For simple treatment, you should consider using BufferedReader, especially BufferedReader.readLine

You can take actions for each line of the file so you don't need to load the whole file anymore.