application "freezing"

[Agapios Hartzoulakis]

Hi, here is my problem.
I'va made an application which reads a big amount of .txt files. This task takes a few minutes. The problem is that until this task is accomplished the application tottaly "freezes". Is there a way to avoid it?

The code goes like this:

  
........
 File directory=fc.getSelectedFile();
          
             File[] files=directory.listFiles();
        
             int i=0;
         
             while(i<files.length && found==0)
            {
          
                 File file=files[i];
            
                 String fileToRead=file.getPath();
            
                 filename=file.getName();
                 if(!filename.substring(filename.length()-5,filename.length()-4).equals("a"))
                 {
                     ;
                 }
                 else
                 {
                   
                      try
                      {
                        // reads the initial file
                        FileReader fr= new FileReader(fileToRead);
                        BufferedReader br= new BufferedReader(fr);
                        readFile(br);
                        fr.close();    
                       }
                       catch (IOException ioe)
                      {
                        ioe.printStackTrace();
                        System.exit(1);
                      }
                 }
 
........
 
private void readFile(BufferedReader br) throws IOException
   {
       
      boolean endOfFile=false;
      String word1="";
      String word2="";
      int lineNum=0;
      String text="";
      
      
      while (!endOfFile)
      {
         
         // takes a line from the text file
         String line=br.readLine();
         
         // if the line is null
         if (line==null)
         {
            endOfFile=true;
         }
         
         // if the line is not null
         else
         {
             text+=line+"\n";
              lineNum++;
            StringTokenizer st= new StringTokenizer(line);
            
            while (st.hasMoreTokens()==true)
            {
                 word1= st.nextToken();
                 
                 
                 if (word1.equals(serT.getText()))
                 {
                     if(st.hasMoreTokens()==true)
                     {
                         word2=st.nextToken();
                         
                         
                         if(word2.equals(numT.getText()))
                         {
                             
                              found=2;
                              
                             
                         }
                         
                             
                         
                     }
                 }
            }
         }
      }
      
 

Thanks in advance.

[Srinivasa Raghavan]

One possible solution is, to use a seperate thread that will take care of reading a file and do necessary tasks. The application is freezing because the same thread is used to control the GUI (or APP )and reads a big file.

HTH

[Agapios Hartzoulakis]

Could you give me a simple example of this?
Thanks

[Srinivasa Raghavan]

What you can do is create a new thread. In the run method of the thread read this big file.

class myFileReader implements Runnable
{
 
public void run()
{
  /* read the big file */
  /* Some more processing logic goes here */
}
 
}
 

If you need the contents of this file create an instance of Thread class with myFileReader's object, and run this thread.

If you need to know more on threads chect it here

[Agapios Hartzoulakis]

Thanks a lot. I could not expect anything more useful.