What would be the fastest way to read from a file?

[suryad]

Would it be to use an ArrayList and store everything in it? Or use a StringBuffer and store everything in it? Or do we read in character by character? What I am trying to achieve is the fastest possible way to read in large or small files basically.

Thanks in advance.

[Matt1eD]

Do you then want to be able to write to it aswell?

[suryad]

Hmm...well...yes and no. Suppose one situation we dont need to write back. Another situation we do. How would then reading impact writing?

[Matt1eD]

What language are you in?

[Kezzer]

Java obviously. Need more info though, are you storing/reading/writing multiple files? I use ArrayLists and have used StringBuffer's before, both very nice features. I use my ArrayList to store objects, it's very easy to use

[Iain]

Kezzer it may be obvious to you but not to others, there's no need to be condescending. Also all you've done is given your preference, not the reasons for them. It might help suryad if you can expand on your comments after all he can't justify his decision to anyone else by saying "some guy on a forum said he preferred ArrayLists"

Suryad, a quick google search here (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Jav...en-US:official) uncovers a lot of good material e.g. http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp...82408&start=15

[suryad]

Its my bad. I should have specified what language I am in. I apologize.

As for specifics regarding what I am doing is writing a simple XML editor from scratch using the JDOM API. So far I have gotten the GUI up completely, and I have been able to open an xml file in the GUI and have it show up as an InternalFrame in the DesktopPanel component. I also have been able to generate a simple Tree describing the structure of the xml document. I have also been able to validate the xml document for well formedness as well as validate it against its schema. Now I want to be able to modify the xml document, save, edit, revalidate, so on both in the text editor as well as by manipulating the JTree. So while file IO is not as intensive, I still want the fastest possible solutions to whatever I am doing. Try to make my code as intensive as possible.

On another note I have been working on this project in Netbeans, and that has taught me a lot about how to use the IDE and I must say I am getting very comofortable with using it. There are some features I would like to be implemented into Netbeans and it seems like the way things are going for that IDE they will probably get implemented in the next release!

Iain thanks for the links. I will check it out give a feedback as soon as I can. If you guys are interested I would be willing to post my source code for your perusal. This is an open source proj. I dont know who will use it but I think it is a good exercise in my Java skills. I am just a month old university graduate after all hehe.

[Kezzer]

Kezzer it may be obvious to you but not to others, there's no need to be condescending. Also all you've done is given your preference, not the reasons for them. It might help suryad if you can expand on your comments after all he can't justify his decision to anyone else by saying "some guy on a forum said he preferred ArrayLists"

Suryad, a quick google search here (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Jav...en-US:official) uncovers a lot of good material e.g. http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp...82408&start=15

eh? i wasn't being condescending at all! grrr, damn text based conversation misinterpretation. Nah sorry, i didn't mean to be condescending i should have put a smiley face in there or something

[Twigman]

Might not be java...
If s/he doesnt know much could be anything really?
In C just read in character by character and store in array

[yamangman]

He did mention ArrayList and StringBuffer though Kinda points to the obvious. But anyway, i'm sure there are loads of tutorials and forum threads on this topic all over the web, search google.

[Kezzer]

He did mention ArrayList and StringBuffer though Kinda points to the obvious. But anyway, i'm sure there are loads of tutorials and forum threads on this topic all over the web, search google.

That's what i was going to refer to but then it'd seem like i'm trying to be even more mean. They're both features of the Java API

[Matt1eD]

Java eh, tis on my list to learn over the summer holidays

[suryad]

Looks like reading in a file sequentially is the best way to do it. Line by line or character by character methinks.

[Sam]

Just use a BufferedReader to read it in line by line putting it into a string builder (or buffer if you're on pre 1.5).