PrintWriter constructor can create file?

[Charles Chikito]

Hi,

I have written the following code and it works.

    
import java.io.*;
class Write222 {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
     		try{
			PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter("myTextFile.txt");
			pw.println("Hello");
			pw.println("World!");
			pw.flush();
			pw.close();
		}
		catch (IOException e) { 
			// Not handling at the moment
		}
	}
}

If the PrintWriter constructor can be used to create a file and its println() method can be used to write into the file, why we need use it to wrap File or FileWriter objects... Can the PrintWriter object alone be used for file writing? Please advice.

Thanks

[Jesper de Jong]

The PrintWriter constructor that takes a String, and also the version that takes a File, creates the underlying FileWriter / FileOutputStream for you. It's not the PrintWriter itself that writes to the file directly; class PrintWriter just has a few constructors to make it more convenient for you, so that you don't have to create the underlying FileWriter object yourself.

[Charles Chikito]

That helps me to understand better now.

Thanks

[Lucas Smith]

And remember that instantiating writers creates files physically!