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From: Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Need character output instead of numbers
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:21:00 -0700 (PDT)
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bilsch wrote:
> Here is a simple example of reading a text file as integers and=20

Strictly speaking, you can only read a text file as text, then convert (som=
e of) that text to an integer.

> displaying each with blank spaces in between.
>=20
>  > import java.io.*;
>  >
>  > public class Nvj3 {
>  >
>  >     public static void main(String[] args){
>  >         try {
>  >         FileInputStream file =3D new FileInputStream("NVRAM.TXT");
>  >         boolean eof =3D false;
>  >         int count =3D 0;
>  >         while (!eof) {
>  >             int input =3D file.read();
>  >             System.out.print(input + " ");
>  >             if (input =3D=3D -1)
>  >                 eof =3D true;
>  >             else
>  >                 count++;
>  >
>  >
>  >         }
>  >         System.out.println("Bytes read : " + count);
>  >
>  >     } catch (IOException e){
>  >         System.out.println("Could not read file");
>  >     }
>  >
>  >     }
>  > }
>  >
>=20
> OUTPUT is positive integers less than 128  (ASCII):
> 78 86 82 65 77 44 32 86 101 114 115 105 111 110 32 49 46 50 48 13 10
> 78 111 110 45 86 111 108 97 116 105 108 101 32 82 65 77 32 83 121 115
>=20
> I looked at the input file with a hex editor and the ASCII chars are all=
=20
> stored as bytes - not integers.

Right.

> I HAVE TWO QUESTIONS: the statement: int input =3D file.read();
> reads the file as a bunch of integer type values but the output is in=20
> character type.  It seems like the correct input statement would be:
>      char input =3D file.read();

Nope. Read the Javadocs for that method, and you can clearly see that the r=
eturn type is 'int'.

> I tried that and it is an error.  QUESTION 1): Can someone explain why=20
> the file is read as char type but the statement says int type?

First of all, your question is not valid. Nothing is read from any 'InputSt=
ream' as a 'char'. That only happens with 'Reader' types. 'InputStream#read=
()' returns values from zero to 255, inclusive, corresponding to the bytes =
in the file, until EOF when it returns -1.
<http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/io/InputStream.html#read()>

Read the Javadocs. Also the part of Roedy's response that explains: "Note h=
ow read() reads one unsigned byte but returns an int so that is can use -1 =
as an eof marker." That is a restatement of what's in the Javadocs, so real=
ly you should read the Javadocs.

> QUESTION 2) What do I need to do to get ASCII characters as output=20
> instead of numbers?

ASCII characters *are* numbers.

What do you really want to do?

I'd do something like:

 BufferedReader reader =3D new BufferedReader(new FileReader("NVRAM.TXT"));=
=20

and use its methods to return 'String' values directly, but if I were count=
ing bytes read, as you seem to want, I'd do basically what you already did.

You can also convert byte arrays to 'String' values if you use other API me=
thods and are very, very rigorous about character encoding. Are you?

--=20
Lew