Open/Read file using recursion

[viperlasson]

Hello, I am having a tough time trying to change my code from reading a text file using a while loop, to reading a file using recursion...

This is my little test program now. It opens up input.txt and reads the input using a while loop and stringtokenizer.

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;


class test
{
	public static void main (String[] args) throws java.io.IOException
	 {

		 String filename = "input.txt";
		 
		 // Initialize the reader
		 BufferedReader reader = null;
		 try {
		 reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));
		 } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
		 e.printStackTrace();
		 }
		 
		 // Initialize the string variable that will contain each
		 // line of text read from the file
		 String s = "";
		 // Read until the end of file
		 while (s!=null) 
			 {
			 try {
			 s = reader.readLine();
			 } catch (IOException e) {
			 e.printStackTrace();
			 }
			    if (s != null)
			    {
		
				    StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer (s);
				    String test;

				     while (st.hasMoreTokens()) 
				     {
				    	 

				    	 test = st.nextToken();
				    	 if (test.equalsIgnoreCase("q"))
				         {
				        	 System.out.println ("User quit.");
				        	 break;
				         }
				         if (test.equalsIgnoreCase("one"))
				        	 System.out.println ("1");
				         if (test.equalsIgnoreCase("two"))
				        	 System.out.println ("2");
				         if (test.equalsIgnoreCase("three"))
				        	 System.out.println ("3");
				     }

			    } //end if
			    
			    
			 } //end while
		
	 } //end main
} //end class

the input.txt contains

one
two
three
q

and works fine as far as I can tell. So now when making a recursive method to do this... I'll need to call the nextToken() recursively with hasMoreTokens() being the base case? Recursive code is always confusing to me...

Thanks for your time.

[gcalvin]

I'm having trouble imagining why you would want to read the file recursively -- I assume it must be a course assignment.

I think you'll find that !reader.ready() will actually be your base case -- that is the condition that will tell you that you are done recursing and can return without doing anything more. Then I guess you want to read and process a line, then recurse (call another copy of your method) to do the rest of the file. It doesn't seem like anything I'd do in practice. I suppose you could make it print the file in reverse order, which would at least be doing something.

-Gary-

[cselic]

I think that simple form of recursion for your program is:

		void myRecursion(String s) {
			if(s == null)
				return;
			else {
					String newString = reader.readLine();
					myRecursion(newString);
					return;
			}
		}

populate rest of your program using copy-paste code from your program into the right place, and maybe change few things.

[viperlasson]

Okay I am still having trouble trying to read a file recursively. I simplified my test program to just try to print out each token per line, but I'm getting an infinite loop after the first token is printed...

Here's what I have

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;


class test
{
	public static void main (String[] args) throws java.io.IOException
	 {

		String meh = "";
		 myRecursion(meh);
		
	 } //end main
	
	//using recursion to read a file
	static void myRecursion(String s) {
		
		
		String filename = "input.txt";
		 
		 // Initialize the reader
		 BufferedReader reader = null;
		 try {
		reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));
		 } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
		 e.printStackTrace();
		 }
			 try {
			 s = reader.readLine();
			 } catch (IOException e) {
			 e.printStackTrace();
			 }
		StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer (s);
				   
		System.out.println (st.nextToken());
		
		
		
		if(s == null)
			return;
		else {
				myRecursion(s);
				return;
			}
	} //end method
} //end class

Shouldn't it be going to the next token when myRecursion is called again?

[cselic]

static void myRecursion(String s) {
		
		
		String filename = "input.txt";
		 
		 // Initialize the reader
		 BufferedReader reader = null;
		 try {
		reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));
		 } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
		 e.printStackTrace();
		 }
			 try {
			 s = reader.readLine();
			 } catch (IOException e) {
			 e.printStackTrace();
			 }
		StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer (s);
				   
		System.out.println (st.nextToken());

So, every time when function call itself you have this:
my filename = input.txt
buffreader = null
then let's see if file input.txt is missing or not
then let's read first line from file
then let's print that.
Then fuction call itself again and what we have?
my filename = input.txt
buffreader = null
then let's see if file input.txt is missing or not
then let's read first line from file
then let's print that.
....
and that's infinite loop.

[StormyWaters]

Why don't you try adding the BufferedReader as a parameter to the recursion method. Don't make opening the file part of the recursion method as this will make you start off at the beginning every time.

[viperlasson]

Alright! I think it is working correctly now! Thanks a lot for everyone's help, I really appreciate it :)

Here is my final code, if anyone else needs help or wants to look what I did

import java.io.*;

class test
{
        //main method
	public static void main (String[] args) throws java.io.IOException
	 {
		String filename = "input.txt";
		 
		 // Initialize the reader
		 BufferedReader reader = null;
		 try {
			 reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));
		 } 
		 catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
			 e.printStackTrace();
		 }
		 
		//recursive call
		myRecursion(reader);
		
	 } //end main
	
	//method using recursion to read a file
	static void myRecursion(BufferedReader br) 
	{
		String s1 = "";
		
		try {
			 s1 = br.readLine();
		 }
		 catch (IOException e) {
			 e.printStackTrace();
		 }

		if(s1 == null)
			return;
		else 
		{
			System.out.println (s1);
			myRecursion(br);
			return;
		}
	} //end method
} //end class

putting an instance of BufferedReader in the method did the trick.