Using scanner.hasNext() but recognize return

Hi All,

I have the following file I am trying to read in with scanner:

a b c d
a b c
a b c d
a b c d

As I read in I want to place the a's in one part of an object, the b's in another and so on. The trick is, if d is not there then I want say that it's null. The really big index has the following code for reading in one word at a time:

Code:

---

s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("abcd.txt")));

            while (s.hasNext()) {
                System.out.println(s.next());
            }

---

The problem is that this doesn't discriminate when a return has occured since .hasNext treats all white space the same. I want to be able to recognize when there is a return so that I know whether the d part is missing or not. The following is psuedo code for what I am trying to acheive:

Code:

---

while (!EOF) {
    a = s.next();
    column.one = a;
    b = s.next();
    column.two = b;
    c = s.next();
    column.three = c;
    d = s.next();
    if (d == 'return') {
        column.four = null;
    } else {
        column.four = d;
    }
}

---

Any ideas?

Cheers, ScKaSx

Do you want to check that at the end there is 'd' found or not?

Yes that is correct. If there is a 'd' then the object gets filled with that value otherwise it gets filled with null.

hasNext() iterate next element and return true if found. next() returns the next token, if hasNext() return true. So where you stuck with?

You can get the token using next(). Validate it.

The problem is:

Lets say we are on 'c' and the next element is 'a' rather than 'd' (since d is not on that line). In my code I won't know that 'd' isn't there since s.next() looks at the next letter and sees 'a' (remember it doesn't discriminate between space and returns). Therefore, when I load the Column.four it gets loaded with 'a' rather than 'null'.

Do you see the problem?

Then how about the reading line by line in the text file? On a single line process, using a regular expression may be.