[erhart]

For text files, I use:

Code:

private Scanner openFileForReading(String fileName)
	{
		try{
			scanner = new Scanner (new File(fileName));		
		}
		catch (FileNotFoundException e){
			System.out.println( "Could not open " +
					fileName);
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		return scanner;
	}

For image files, I use:

Code:

        private Image getCelebrityImage(String fileName){
    		BufferedImage img = null;
    		try {
    			img = ImageIO.read(new File(fileName));
    		} 
    		catch (IOException e) {
    			System.out.println("Unable to access image " + fileName);
    			e.printStackTrace();
    		}
    		return img;
        }