Properties file

[Tmmet Johnson]

Hi,
I want to load a properties file.
Below is the code that I have.I have synchronized at the method level?I know this will slow down the performance.How can I set the synchronization at the block level?Can anyone help me out?

public synchronized Properties getPropertyFile(String fileName)throws Exception {

Properties prop = (Properties) hashMap.get(fileName);
if(prop == null){
prop = new Properties();
InputStream is = null;
is = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(fileName);
prop.load(is);
map.put(fileName,prop);
is.close();
}

I have the below member variables and methods.
private static HashMap hashMap = new HashMap();
private static PropertyUtils instance = new PropertyUtils();
private PropertyUtility() {}
public static PropertyUtility instance() {return instance;}
Thanks in advance,

[Ulf Dittmer]

I wouldn't worry about making synchronization more fine-grained. File I/O is inherently slow compared to in-memory operations, so the overhead of synchronization should be negligible.