How to stop Scanner changing bytes when inputing data from file in Java?

Question

I am using the Scanner utility in Java to input data from a file like so:

        File file = new File("mazes.txt");
        Scanner scan = new Scanner(file);  
        scan.useDelimiter("__________\n");  
        String record = scan.next();

but it is changing certain bytes to other bytes. For example, where the record string should be a byte with hexadecimal value 80, Scanner seems to turn this into a byte with a hex value of ac. How can I input records from the file without any switching of the bytes like this?

Answer 1

From the documentation of the constructor:

Bytes from the file are converted into characters using the underlying platform's default charset.

If your file has another encoding, you must use (e.g.):

 Scanner scan = new Scanner(file,"UTF-8");  

or

 Scanner scan = new Scanner(file,"ISO8859-1");

etc.