opening file to textfield

[Candy Bortniker]

I need to open a file and have it appear in a scrollable textfield. I am able to open a file and I have a textfield that is scrollable. What I don't know how to do is put the file in the textfield. Any suggestions?

[Gregg Bolinger]

I am assuming that you are speaking of a text file. And you want the contents of the text file to appear in the TextField.
What you need to do is take your File object and use a BufferedReader of some flavor to read each line of the textfile into a StringBuffer object. Once you reach the EOF, myTextField.setText(myStringBuffer.toString());
Or, you could use the append() method of the textfield and each time you read a line do a myTextField.append(myLineOfTextString);
If this is not what you were talking about, please clarify.

[Candy Bortniker]

This is exactly what I was talking about. Thanks for the help.

[Candy Bortniker]

I guess I need more help. This is what I have now:

BufferedInputStream buff = new BufferedInputStream(fis);
sb = new StringBuffer(String buff);
buff.close();
textArea.setText(sb.toString());(this is in a different class)

I'm getting a compile error for the StringBuffer line because of the (String buff) but the API shows that as a valid constructor.
What did I do wrong?

[Gregg Bolinger]

Well, the API can be a bit confusing. At least it was for me when I first started. Anytime you see something like:
StringBuffer(String arg)
Or the like that means that there is a StringBuffer constructor that takes a String as an argument. So in your code:
sb = new StringBuffer(String buff);
The problem is 2 fold
1. if buff was a String you would simply say:
sb = new StringBuffer(buff);
2. But buff is a BufferedInputStream and a StringBuffer won't accept that as an argument.
I am not sure if you are leaving part of your code out on purpose or if what you provided is all you have, but you still have a lot of work to do.
Look at the following:

BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("someFile.txt"));
String line = "";
while ( (line = in.readLine() ) != null)
{
   //This is where you will either add the line
   //to your StringBuffer or add the line to
   //your TextField  
}
in.close();

Hopefully that will get you going. For future reference, when you are having code problems post at the least majority of the code you are having a problem with, because where you think the problem is could be that something else we don't see is causing it. Also, post "exact" compile/error messages. That way we know what errors we are dealing with versus: "I got errors..."
Let me know how it goes....

[Candy Bortniker]

I'm now getting a 2 compile errors. One for the in.readLine() - cannot resolve symbol method readLine(), the other error is at sb.toString() - cannot resolve symbol variable sb.
Here is more of the code if that will help

class ScrollableFrame extends JFrame
{
public static final int WIDTH = 300;
public static final int HEIGHT = 300;
StringBuffer sb;
public ScrollableFrame()
{
//set up title and size of frame
setTitle("TickerThread");
setSize(WIDTH, HEIGHT);
/*constuct the applications menu*/
JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
JMenuItem menuItemOpen = new JMenuItem("Open");
JMenuItem menuItemSave = new JMenuItem("Save");
JMenuItem menuItemExit = new JMenuItem("Exit");
//add JMenuItems to JMenus, JMenus to the JMenuBar and set the JFrames JMenuBar
    //this code ties the various menu components together
setJMenuBar(menuBar);
JMenu mnuFile = new JMenu("File");
menuBar.add(mnuFile);
mnuFile.add(menuItemOpen);
mnuFile.add(menuItemSave);
mnuFile.add(menuItemExit);
//create new instance of class that will handle menu events
    MenuItemActionListener menuListener = new MenuItemActionListener();
    //register JMenuItems with menuListener
    menuItemExit.addActionListener(menuListener);
    menuItemOpen.addActionListener(menuListener);
    menuItemSave.addActionListener(menuListener);
//setup the ContentPane to place the panel
Container c = getContentPane();
c.add(new ScrollPanel());
}
class MenuItemActionListener implements ActionListener
{
//Create a file chooser
final JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser();
//override actionPerformed
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{
//determine which JMenuItem was selected and act accordingly
//Handle exit button action.
if (e.getActionCommand().equals("Exit"))
System.exit(0);
//Handle open button action.
else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("Open"))
{
 int returnVal = fc.showOpenDialog(null);
 if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
 {
 File file = fc.getSelectedFile();
 //This is where the application opens the file.
 try
 {
 FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
     BufferedInputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(fis);
     String line = "";
     while ((line = in.readLine()) != null)
     {
 sb = new StringBuffer(line);
 }
 in.close();
 }
 catch (IOException error)
 {
 System.out.println("Exception: " + error.getMessage());
 }
                  }
 }
 else if (e.getActionCommand().equals("Save"))
 {
 //Handle save button action.
 int returnVal = fc.showSaveDialog(null);
 if (returnVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)
 {
 File file = fc.getSelectedFile();
 //This is where the application saves the file
 try
 {
 FileOutputStream fis = new FileOutputStream(file);
     BufferedOutputStream buff = new BufferedOutputStream(fis);
 }
 catch (IOException error)
 {
 System.out.println("Exception: " + error.getMessage());
 }
 }
 }
}
}
}//end of ScrollableFrame

class ScrollPanel extends JPanel
{
public ScrollPanel()
{
JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(10, 25);
        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textArea);
        add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        textArea.setText(sb.toString());
}
}