Problem when reading a CSVs file as separate words - any help!!

[celine scarlett]

Hi,

I have a text file with lines of comma separated values, for example as follows,

Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Robert Zemeckis

I'm able to write this data to a file with no problem, but when I try to read back the file using standard string calls, eg: readWord, it just reads in the separate commas, words and so forth.

How do I get it to read the whole line, and then separate it out to the required words?

My code for the title class is as follows,

  
import simplejava.*;
 
public class Title {
    private int titleCode;
    private String filmName, leadActor1, leadActor2, director;
    
    public Title(int title, String film, String lead1, String lead2, String dir) {
        titleCode = title;
        filmName = film;
        leadActor1 = lead1;
        leadActor2 = lead2;
        director = dir;
    }
    
    public Title(SimpleReader in) {
        this(in.readInt(), in.readWord(), in.readWord(), in.readWord(), in.readWord()); 
    //this(in.readInt(), in.readLine());
    }
    
    public void setTitleCode(int title) {
        titleCode = title;  }
    
    public int getTitleCode() {
        return titleCode;  }
    
    public void setFilmName(String film) {
        filmName = film;  }
    
    public String getFilmName() {
        return filmName;  }
    
    public void setLeadActor1(String lead1) {
        leadActor1 = lead1;  }
    
    public String getLeadActor1() {
        return leadActor1;  }
    
    public void setLeadActor2(String lead2) {
        leadActor2 = lead2;  }
    
    public String getLeadActor2() {
        return leadActor2;  }
    
    public void setDirector(String dir) {
        director = dir;  }
    
    public String getDirector() {
        return director;  }
    
    public void saveTo(SimpleWriter out) {
        out.println(titleCode+", "+filmName+", "+leadActor1+", "+leadActor2+", "+director);
    }//saveTo method writes details of the Title class to a text file
    
    public String toString() {
        return "Code Number = "+titleCode+" Film = "+filmName+" Lead Actor = "+leadActor1+" Supporting Actor = "
                +leadActor2+" Director = "+director+" ";  }
    
}

Any help gratefully appreciated!!

[Scott Selikoff]

http://javaalmanac.com/egs/java.io/ReadLinesFromFile.html

shows an example of reading a file line by line. You can then use String.split() to separate on comma values although beware of extra whitespaces if you have them after the comma as in your example.

[celine scarlett]

Hi,

I've tried implementing the following code to fix the above problem,

  
package VideoStoreProject;
 
import simplejava.*;
import videos.*;
import java.io.*;
 
public class AddTitle {
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String film, actor1, actor2, director, title;
        int codeNum;
        
        SimpleReader keyboard = new SimpleReader();
        SimpleWriter screen = new SimpleWriter();
        
        SimpleReader inFile = new SimpleReader("title_test.txt");
        
       
        
        TitleList titles = new TitleList(inFile);
        codeNum = keyboard.readInt("Title Code for the Film");
        //int intValue = membNum;
        //String stringValue = Integer.toString(intValue);
        film = keyboard.readLine("Film Title?");
        actor1 = keyboard.readLine("Lead Actor?");
        actor2 = keyboard.readLine("Supporting Actor?");
        director = keyboard.readLine("Director?");
        titles.add(new Title(codeNum, film, actor1, actor2, director));
        screen.println(titles);
        //screen.println(stringValue);
        
        title = inFile.readLine();//I added this code to try and convert the
        String[] myStrings = title.split(",");//line to separate Strings
        
        SimpleWriter outFile = new SimpleWriter("title_test.txt");
        titles.saveTo(outFile);
        outFile.close();
    }
    
}

but I'm not having much luck. The main class now just saves to the text file '0 0'. There is now no data being saved.

Any idea how I can fix this problem? I'm trying to read in a line of CSVs and separate them into indivdual strings.

Any help or advice appreciated!!

[Henry Wong]

How do you know if the readline and split even works? You don't do anything with the myStrings array. You could have done it correctly, and simply thrown it away.

Henry

[celine scarlett]

Hi,

I've tried implementing the String array within the main class by itself and it outputs a line of the separate words with no problem. It removes the commas as follows,

297452Lost in TranslationBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonSofia Coppola

When I include all the previous code as follows,

  
package VideoStoreProject;
 
import simplejava.*;
import videos.*;
import java.io.*;
 
public class AddTitle {
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String film, actor1, actor2, director, title;
        int codeNum;
        
        SimpleReader keyboard = new SimpleReader();
        SimpleWriter screen = new SimpleWriter();
        
        SimpleReader inFile = new SimpleReader("title_test.txt");
        
        //codeNum = keyboard.readInt("Title Code for the Film");
        //int intValue = codeNum;
        //String stringValue = Integer.toString(intValue);
        
        TitleList titles = new TitleList(inFile);
        codeNum = keyboard.readInt("Title Code for the Film");
        int intValue = codeNum;
        String stringValue = Integer.toString(intValue);
        film = keyboard.readLine("Film Title?");
        actor1 = keyboard.readLine("Lead Actor?");
        actor2 = keyboard.readLine("Supporting Actor?");
        director = keyboard.readLine("Director?");
        titles.add(new Title(codeNum, film, actor1, actor2, director));
        screen.println(titles);
        //screen.println(stringValue);
        
        title = inFile.readLine();
        String[] myStrings = title.split(",");
        for (int i=0; i<myStrings.length; i++)
        System.out.print(myStrings[i]);
        
        SimpleWriter outFile = new SimpleWriter("title_test.txt");
        titles.saveTo(outFile);
        outFile.close();
    }
    
}

I get the following problem,

Error in SimpleInput.readInt() - digit expected
,Lost in Translation,Bill Murray,Scarlett Johansson,Sofia Coppola

I think the reading of the line as a string and extracting the words is working, but why is there a problem with reading in the first int in the CSV list?

Any ideas how to fix this?

[Henry Wong]

Any ideas how to fix this?

Unfortunately, that debugging message (or lack of it) is your code. There is just not enough information provided for us. I would suggest that you modify that error message to provide a stack trace (Just create an exception, and call the print stack method).

Furthermore, I would also suggest that you don't make any assumptions. Load the code with debugging messages. Don't assume that the code broke at a certain location -- be certain of it.

Henry

[celine scarlett]

Hi,

I think I've managed to fix the previous error, 'digit expected', but I still get a problem when I save the new text file after adding a new title. The output after adding a new title is as follows,

Borrower Count = 2 Max Borrowers = 20
Code Number = 278342 Film = ,Forrest Lead Actor = Gump,Tom Supporting Actor = Hanks,Gary Director = Sinise,Robert
Code Number = 273654 Film = Lost in Translation Lead Actor = Bill Murray Supporting Actor = Scarlett Johansson Director = Sofia Coppola
Zemeckis

and the text file is saved as follows,

20 2
278342,,Forrest,Gump,Tom,Hanks,Gary,Sinise,Robert
273654,Lost in Translation,Bill Murray,Scarlett Johansson,Sofia Coppola

As shown in the above output, each time I add a new title to the list, the main class rewrites the previous titles, adding a comma after each word.

I really don't understand why this is happening.

Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated!!