How can I read a text file from the SD card in Android?

Question

I am new to Android development.

I need to read a text file from the SD card and display that text file. Is there any way to view a text file directly in Android or else how can I read and display the contents of a text file?

Answer 1

In your layout you'll need something to display the text. A TextView is the obvious choice. So you'll have something like this:

<TextView      android:id="@+id/text_view"      android:layout_width="fill_parent"      android:layout_height="fill_parent"/> 

And your code will look like this:

//Find the directory for the SD Card using the API //*Don't* hardcode "/sdcard" File sdcard = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();  //Get the text file File file = new File(sdcard,"file.txt");  //Read text from file StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();  try {     BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));     String line;      while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {         text.append(line);         text.append('\n');     }     br.close(); } catch (IOException e) {     //You'll need to add proper error handling here }  //Find the view by its id TextView tv = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.text_view);  //Set the text tv.setText(text); 

This could go in the onCreate() method of your Activity, or somewhere else depending on just what it is you want to do.