How to read data from a file...

[Jonathan King]

I am at a lost as to where to begin...
I need to read data from a file (Example: 2c 4h 5d 9s)
then according to what letter is next to the number, I place in the proper
array spot. (So I am guessing multi-dimensional array?)
Umm... data is 13 'couplets' and I am at a total loss of where to begin. Do I need to use a string tokenizer, get one couplet, and then how do I tell from the couplet what letter it is.... I keep thinking this has to be simple, and I am just thinking too complex. I'm just not sure how to read mixed data types from a file (int/char pairs), and then how to figure out specifically what letter is from each pair. ANYWAY... ANY help at all on this problem would be MOST appreciated!!!
Jon

[Timmy Marks]

You could try the following:
create a BufferedReader that is connected to a FileReader that is created using your file.
using readLine() you can read the lines of the file one at a time into a String
then tokenize the String you just read into smaller strings.
Then you could use the charAt() method of the String class to get each character.
Hope this helps

[Jonathan King]

Okay, thanks for the tip! Does this look like proper code for a situation for this?

import java.io.*;
public class BridgeHand
{
 public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader ( new FileReader ("BridgeHand.txt") );
 String inputLine = in.readLine();
StringTokenizer = new StringTokenizer(inputLine);
while(tokenizer.hasMoreTokens())
{
String token = tokenizer.nextToken();
char charRank = token.charAt(0);

switch(charRank)
{
case 2: int intRank = Integer.parseInt(charRank); break;
// continue with cases
default: System.out.print("Invalid input"); break;
}

char charSuit = token.charAt(1);

switch(charSuit)
{
case c: // add value to an array at parseInt(charRank); break;
case C: // same as case c; break;
// continue with cases for h,d,s, etc.
default: System.out.print("Invalid input"); break;
}
}
}
} 

or is this not legal usage of charAt? Can I parse it like that?
Any answers will be appreciated!!
Jon