Database read problem

[uzma ali]

I am having the B&S assignment and I am at a leel of biginners stage. Reading through different posts I got little idea about RAF, like it has header, scheama etc. If somebody would like to explain in my scenario, greatly appreciated.

When I read my DB file and use System.out.println(raf.length());
Does it mean I donot have any records in my database file ? Please see the discription below. any help is appreciated. I am totally stuck.

Start of file
4 byte numeric, magic cookie value. Identifies this as a data file
2 byte numeric, number of fields in each record

Schema description section.
Repeated for each field in a record:
1 byte numeric, length in bytes of field name
n bytes (defined by previous entry), field name
1 byte numeric, field length in bytes
end of repeating block

Data section.
Repeat to end of file:
1 byte flag. 00 implies valid record, 0xFF implies deleted record
Record containing fields in order specified in schema section, no separators between fields, each field fixed length at maximum specified in schema information

End of file



Database schema
The database that Bodgitt and Scarper uses contains the following fields: Field descriptive name Database field name Field length Detailed description
Subcontractor Name name 32 The name of the subcontractor this record relates to.
City location 64 The locality in which this contractor works
Types of work performed specialties 64 Comma separated list of types of work this contractor can perform.
Number of staff in organization size 6 The number of workers available when this record is booked
Hourly charge rate 8 Charge per hour for the subcontractor. This field includes the currency symbol
Customer holding this record owner 8 The id value (an 8 digit number) of the customer who has booked this. Note that for this application, you should assume that customers and CSRs know their customer ids. The system you are writing does not interact with these numbers, rather it simply records them. If this field is all blanks, the record is available for sale.

[John Stone]

When I read my DB file and use System.out.println(raf.length());

then... what? (do you see?)

Your records are in data section. I think it is very unlikely, that you have 0 records in your db file.

[uzma ali]

it brings me zero (0)

and when I do this

System.out.println("The magic cookie is "+raf.readInt());

or

System.out.println("The magic cookie is "+raf.readInt());

It throws exception

and when I do this

byte[] FIELD_LENGTHS = {32,64,64,6,8,8};  // Example - refer to your spec for these values
String[] recordValues = new String[6]; // 7 is number of fields
for (int i = 0; i < recordValues.length; i++) {

byte[] bytes = new byte[FIELD_LENGTHS[i]];
in.read(bytes);    
recordValues[i] = new String(bytes, "US-ASCII");
System.out.println(recordValues[i]);
System.out.println(bytes);

}

it brings me the strange output [B@107077e, B@7ced01 , B@26e431......

[Jason Moors]

Hi Uzma,

I'm not sure what you are asking but the raf.length() should return the length of your file in bytes.

I would recommend you start by writing a simple program to output the contents of the file.

For example to read the magic cookie you would use the readInt() method, which will read the first 4 bytes of the file.

The determine the number of fields using the readShort() method, which will read the next 2 bytes of the file.

Then you need a for loop to read the number of fields defined by the previous step.

Now you have read the header you can read each record, using the information from the schema description, i.e. you know the field length in bytes to read in each record.

Hope it helps

Jason

[uzma ali]

Please help I am posting my code and tell me where I am making the mistake
Your help is valuable

package suncertify.db;
 
import java.io.*;
 

public class ContractorFileAcess {

public static void main(String argv[]){
ContractorFileAcess r = new ContractorFileAcess();
        r.amethod();
        }
 
public void amethod(){


File datafile = new File("db-2x3.db");
RandomAccessFile in = null;       
try { in = new RandomAccessFile(datafile, "r"); 
 System.out.println("file found");
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {  System.out.println("FNF: " + e.getMessage());
System.exit(1); }
 
try {  System.out.println("the pointer is:" + in.getFilePointer());
     System.out.println("the file size:" + in.length());
     System.out.println("the pointer is:" + in.readInt());
in.seek(4);
System.out.println("the pointer is:" + in.getFilePointer());


} catch (EOFException e) {   System.out.println("EOF: " + e.getMessage()); } 

  catch (IOException e) {   System.out.println("IO: " + e.getMessage()); } 
  finally {  try { in.close(); } catch (Exception e) {}        }     
}
}

and it brings me

file found
the pointer is:0
the file size:0
EOF: null

[Jason Moors]

I think it could be the path of your DB file.

If you add the following line before creating the RandomAccessFile, see what you get.

System.out.println("file exists = " + datafile.exists());

[uzma ali]

it says :
file exists = true
file found
the pointer is:0
the file size:0
EOF: null

that means file exists.
thanks for the help
any further suggestions?

[Jason Moors]

Have you checked the size of the file from the operating system, tried opening the file using notepad, vi etc? Do you see bytes in the file?

Have you used "rw" when creating the RandomFileAccess in the past? as it will create a empty file if it can't find a file.

Have you got a backup of the file?

[uzma ali]

Now I replaced the file with the backup
and getting

file exists = false
FNF: db-2x3.db (The system cannot find the file specified)

you were so right

so now why it is not finding the file though I have replaced it

thanks

Uzma

[Jason Moors]

Where is the db file in location to your class file?

You could try including the fully qualified path i.e.

new File("C:\\directory\\db-2x3.db");

Just make sure you use copy of the file and not the backup file!
[ July 30, 2007: Message edited by: Jason Moors ]

[uzma ali]

I gave the path and it is even the same directory as of the contractorAccessfile

what should I do now

Only thing is .db is the extension I gave to file but even removing the extension does not help

thanks

Uzma

[Jason Moors]

Is the db file in the same directory as the class or the location your are executing the java command?

i.e. From your example code you are using the sun.certify package so is the db file under \sun\certify or where you are running the java command? which normally would be above the sun\certify directory