[Zibang]

Ok my problem is ignoring comment lines which start with "#"
I have tried using the startsWith() method but it still reads the line cause an error

public void readDataFromFile() throws Exception 
{ 

// set up an owner for the FileDialog 
JFrame jframe = new JFrame(); 
jframe.setVisible(true); 
// use a Filedialog to select a file to read from 
FileDialog fDialog = new FileDialog(jframe, "Read from", FileDialog.LOAD); 
fDialog.setFile("*.txt"); 
fDialog.setDirectory("."); 
fDialog.setVisible(true); 
String fname = fDialog.getFile(); 
jframe.dispose(); 

File inFile = new File(fname); 
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(inFile)); 

String line = reader.readLine(); 
if(line !=null){System.out.println(line);} 

while((line=reader.readLine())!=null) 
{ 
if(line.trim().startsWith("#")); 
{} 

String[] sLine = line.trim().split("\t"); 

String name = sLine[1]; 
String species = sLine[2]; 

addAnimal( new Animal(name,species,this) ); 
} 

reader.close() 

} 
 

The text file being read...

import shipment of April 12, 2007
# tab separated data
Bird Golden Eagle Eddie
Mammal Tiger Tommy
Mammal Lion Leo
Mammal Elephant Eddie
Bird Parrot Polly
# last one next
Reptile Cobra Colin

[bcranger]

Haven't tested it, but try:

if(line.trim().charAt(0) == '#')
{
  continue;
}

The continue statement will skip the rest of the loop, so it should do the trick...and charAt(0) should take the first character which according to you should be "#".

[KYA]

if(line.trim().startsWith("#"));
{} 

Is that a typo or how it is actually in your editor? The semi colon afterward negates the if check, nothing will happen. If it wasn't there the immediate brackets with zero contents also does "nothing".

[Zibang]

KYA, on 07 August 2010 - 02:31 PM, said:

if(line.trim().startsWith("#"));
{} 

Is that a typo or how it is actually in your editor? The semi colon afterward negates the if check, nothing will happen. If it wasn't there the immediate brackets with zero contents also does "nothing".

that was a typo... and I thought since the startsWith # it will do nothing and skip to the next line

[n8wxs]

Quote

and I thought since the startsWith # it will do nothing and skip to the next line

No, it will simply fall through to the next statement.

What you want is:

if (line.trim().startsWith("#"))
{
    continue; // continue while() loop
}

[Zibang]

Figured it out

  while((line2=reader.readLine())!=null)
         {
        
             if(line2.trim().startsWith("#"))
                {
                }
                else
                {
                  String[] sLine = line2.trim().split("\t");
                  String name = sLine[1];
                  String species = sLine[2];
     
                  addAnimal( new Animal(name,species,this) );  
               }
         }
          
       reader.close();
       System.out.println("*** Finished Reading "+fname+" ***");

Just needed to put the rest of the code below in an else
Thank you for your help

[bcranger]

Better to use the "continue" keyword as it is better design

[cfoley]

There are two nice solutions to this. My favourite is the one suggested above:

if(line2.trim().startsWith("#")) {continue;}
//Here goes the rest of your processing.

Some people have an aversion to the continue keyword. They would code it like this:

if(!line2.trim().startsWith("#")) {
    //Here goes the rest of your processing.
}

Here I've used ! to avoid the empty block in your code.

[YasuoDancez]

	
if(line !=null){System.out.println(line);} 

If you put this line inside your while loop you won't have to do two checks.
Here you are checking with the if and your while loop already does a check for line != null.

[cfoley]

I'm not sure about that. From the look of his code, it seems he wants to handle the first line differently from the rest. i.e. print it out instead of creating an Animal object.

[YasuoDancez]

If he wanted to handle it differently, then wouldn't it seem better to create different methods/decompose it more?

[cfoley]

Maybe, but that's an entirely separate issue.

[pbl]

bcranger, on 07 August 2010 - 06:22 PM, said:

Better to use the "continue" keyword as it is better design

and it saves one level of identetion avoiding a pair of {}
lot easier to read