Information: PrintWriter & FileWriter

FileWriter is the character representation of IO. That means it can be used to write characters. Internally FileWriter would use the default character set of the underlying OS and convert the characters to bytes and write it to the disk.
PrintWriter & FileWriter.
Similarities
a) Both extend from Writer.
b) Both are character representation classes, that means they work with characters and convert them to bytes using default charset.
Differences
a) FileWriter throws IOException in case of any IO failure, this is a checked exception.
b) None of the PrintWriter methods throws IOException , instead they set a boolean flag which can be obtained using checkError().
c) PrintWriter invokes flush after every byte of data is written , automatically. In case of FileWriter, invoker as to take care of invoking flush.

Difference between PrintStream and OutputStream: Similar to above explanation, just replace character with byte.

In case you guys know more difference , post it. Further please correct me whereever possible,

Hi Deepak,
Thanks for the useful information

Preetha

nice info Deepak:

PrintWriter also provides:

append()
format()
print()
printf()
println()

methods.
[ December 08, 2008: Message edited by: Punit Singh ]

PrintWriter has following methods :
close()
flush()
format()
printf()
print()
println()
write()

and constructors are :
File (as of Java 5)
String (as of Java 5)
OutputStream
Writer

while FileWriter having following methods :
close()
flush()
write()

and constructors are :
File
String

//ref. SCJP5

Thanks guys

It was informative

b) None of the PrintWriter methods throws IOException , instead they set a boolean flag which can be obtained using checkError().

True. I'd just like to add that though none of the methods of Printwriter throw IOException, a couple of constructers of PrintWriter may (the ones that take String and File objects as arguments).

Nice compilation, Deepak!

i have a questio:

What is the difference between PrintWriter.write(String) and PrintWriter.print(String)?

Regards
Marcel.