Try-catch-(finally?) on reading/writing to files

[Torchi12]

When reading or writing to files, what should you have in a try-catch?
And should you have a finally?

Should I have everything in the try?
Like.. maybe create a File variable to check if a file with that name exists etc and throw errors if they do.
And then open the file and write to it?
And have the printWriterVariable.close() in the finally?


or something like this..

     
    PrintWriter pw = null;
     
    try
    {
    pw = new PrintWriter( new BufferedWriter( new FileWriter(filNamn, true) ) );
    }
    catch(IOException error)
    {
    System.out.println("\Something went wrong, e.message:"+error.getMessage());
     
    return;
    }

[Junky]

There really isn't any rule as to how you write a try statement. If you are lazy you can just make all your methods throw the exception and let the JVM handle it. Or you can restrict the scope of the try statement by only placing the code that can cause the exception inside it. Or anything in between. However, you should try and restrict the scope as much as possible.

[Torchi12]

Anyone..?

[Junky]

Anyone..?

Apparently my first reply is invisible.

[Torchi12]

So, something like this?

		File aFile = new File("Hey.txt");
		
		if( aFile.exists() )
			System.out.println("Exists");
			//I dont know, something like - file exists, want to write over it?
			//if no, end function
			
		PrintWriter pw = null;
		try
		{
		pw = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("Hey.txt") ) );
		}
		catch(IOException error)
		{
			System.out.println("Error: "+error.getMessage() );
		}
		
		pw.println("some stuff");
		pw.println("Some more stuff");
		
		pw.close();

I have another questions.

1. If I write:

PrintWriter pw = null;

try
{
pw = blablabla...;
}
catch(blabla)
{
blabla
}

Do I need a finally to close pw?
If yes - I always have to write everything inside the try?
But if something goes wrong in that try, then it was never open right? a close is not needed?

[Junky]

Since none of the methods of PrintWriter throw an exception your code does not have to go in the try statement. Or you could place it inside the try statement and have the call to close in the finally or not. Maybe even use an if statement to see if the writer needs to be closed or not. Or......

[Torchi12]

The printwriter doesnt throw an exception, but the filewriter does

[Junky]

The short and curly is code that may throw an exception MUST go inside a try statement*. Code that doesn't throw an exception may or may not go inside the try statement. You decide.

* unless the method throws the exception.

[Tolls]

		File aFile = new File("Hey.txt");
		
		if( aFile.exists() )
			System.out.println("Exists");
			//I dont know, something like - file exists, want to write over it?
			//if no, end function
			
		PrintWriter pw = null;
		try
		{
		pw = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("Hey.txt") ) );
		}
		catch(IOException error)
		{
			System.out.println("Error: "+error.getMessage() );
		}
		
		pw.println("some stuff");
		pw.println("Some more stuff");
		
		pw.close();

If the above is a FileWriter (rather than PrintWriter) then the above is broken...if the creation of the writer fails then you will get a NullPointerException when you try and use it. Throw that exception (or a more generic one with the IO exception wrapped in it).

As for finally, in general you would have the processing code inside the try block since attempting to use the writer after a FileNotFound (for example) makes no sense...and therefore you close the writer in the finally block to ensure it is closed.

ETA: Oh, just noticed it was a FileWriter wrapped in a PrintWriter...still, the rest stands.