text data files

[Nazma Panjwani]

Hi Guys,

I am trying to create a text data file, file extension .dat.....how do I do this??
Basically, I am supposed to write a class in java, that reads from this text file, (the text file contains inventory information such as item name, # of units, price etc), and creates objects (of some class type which I am also supposed to create). So, taht's two classes........

Can I create a wordpad file, and change the extension to .dat???

Thanks
Nazma

[Christophe Verré]

Can I create a wordpad file, and change the extension to .dat???

Any editor will do, as long as you save it as a text file, and give it a .dat extension. You can even save it as a .txt file, and rename it after, using for example windows explorer.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Why are you supposed to give it a .dat extension? If you do that, Windows will think it is a system file.

[Christophe Verré]

Why are you supposed to give it a .dat extension?

I remember sometimes data files in old games were using that extension. They were binary files though.

[Jesper de Jong]

If you want to learn about reading and writing files in Java, then have a look at Lesson: Basic I/O in Sun's Java tutorials. Especially the page Character Streams from that tutorial shows with examples how you can read and write text files.