Reading a particular line from a text file in Java

Question

What is the most efficient way to extract specific line numbers of data from a text file? For example, if I use the Scanner to parse a file, do I first have to create an array with a length matching the total number of lines in the text file?

If a text file has 30 lines and I only want to work with lines 3, 8, and 12, is there a way to specifically only read those lines?

Answer 1

here is how you do it:

import java.io.*;

public class Test {
public static void main(String [] args) {

    // The name of the file to open.
    String fileName = "temp.txt";
    int counter = 0;

    // This will reference one line at a time
    String line = null;
    FileReader fileReader = null;

    try {
        // FileReader reads text files in the default encoding.
        fileReader = 
            new FileReader(fileName);

        // Always wrap FileReader in BufferedReader.
        BufferedReader bufferedReader = 
            new BufferedReader(fileReader);

        while((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
            counter++;
            if(counter == 3 || counter == 8 || counter == 12)
            {
               // do your code
            }
        }   

    }
    catch(FileNotFoundException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Unable to open file '" + 
            fileName + "'");                
    }
    catch(IOException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Error reading file '" 
            + fileName + "'");                  
        // Or we could just do this: 
        // ex.printStackTrace();
    }
    finally
    {
        if(fileReader != null){
           // Always close files.
           bufferedReader.close();            
        }
    }
}
}