Code examples used for this class were from “Java How to Program” Ch. 14

Recommended Study Action:

Review the Self review exercises of Ch 14

Read all exercises of Ch. 14 and formulate ideas as to how these problems would be completed.

Try to implement 14.13

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File Class

Can use absolute or relative paths.

File.pathSeparator retrieves a systems path separator constant.

Directories are files.

Stream - Ordered Data read from or written to a file

Abstract Classes: InputStream, OutputStream

Provide simple implementations of read and write methods.

(http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/io/InputStream.html)

(http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/io/OutputStream.html)

Binary vs Character Based Files

Binary files are not Human readable

Binary files are read and written equally in all java JVMs

Character Based Files are Human readable

Character Based Files use system specific Character Sets

System.in, System.out, System.err

System.in is an InputStream Object

System.out is a PrintStream Object

System.err is a PrintStream Object

Text File Processing

Reads System Specific Charset characters in and converts to Unicode Charset

Format defined by programmer, including field delimiters

Object Serialization

Implements Serializable

Can only serialize objects that are primitive or Searializable!

Keyword ‘transient’ tells the compiler not to store this variable

RandomAccessFiles

Pointer can be moved to any postion within the file

Records of fixed length can be easily accessed

No More Field Delimiters!