Tokenizing a line and searching

[Ryan Akim]

I have to write and read from a 'database-like text file.
I'm simply trying to search through the text file for a certain value, the student ID.
Each line represents one student. The format looks like:

firstname lastname studentID SATscore
firstName lastName studentID SATscore

etc

I'm basically trying to find a student by their student ID.
My current attempt doesn't seem to work so well:

   public static int searchStudent()
   {
      // local constants

      // local variables
      String studentID;
      String fileName;
      FileReader fr;
      BufferedReader br;
      StringTokenizer st;
      String line;
      String token;
      boolean found = false;
      int count = 0;
      int id;

      /*******************************************/

      //lib.clrscr();

      System.out.print("\n\n\n");
      System.out.print(Utilities.centerText("Search Student"));
      System.out.print("\n\n\tEnter filename: ");
      fileName = Keyboard.readString();

      System.out.print("\n\n\tEnter student ID: ");
      studentID = Keyboard.readString();

      try
      {
         fr = new FileReader(fileName);
         br = new BufferedReader(fr);

         line = br.readLine();

         while (line != null)
         {
            //
            st = new StringTokenizer(line);

            token = st.nextToken();

            while (st.hasMoreTokens() && !found)
            {
               if (token == studentID)
               {
                  found = true;
                  id = count;
                  line = null;

               }
               else
                  token = st.nextToken();
            }

            count++;

            line = br.readLine();
         }

         return count;
      }
      catch(Exception e)
      {
         System.out.println("\n\t\t***"+e+"***\n\n");
         e.printStackTrace();
      }

      return -1;
   }

This current method is a result of me messing around with it and changing things at random.
My main problem is: it always returns the last student in the file, and I can't seem to figure it out.
I'm sure it has something to do with my logic. I'm pretty tired at the moment, so this is getting harder and harder by the hour, haha.

Anyone see the problem?

[Balu Sadhasivam]

#  while (st.hasMoreTokens() && !found)  
#             {  
#                if (token == studentID)  
#                {  
#                   found = true;  
#                   id = count;  
#                   line = null;  
#   
#                }  
#                else  
#                   token = st.nextToken();  
#             }  

I m not sure exactly what you search here ? If you found "studentID" , then break the loop.

if (found == true)
  break; // from outer while loop.

there is no information that is stored in the loop except "count".

[Vivek Kr Singh]

Scanner will be surely helpful. Use pattern matching to get the line with student id.

[Ryan Akim]

Ah, thanks for the reply.
That would work and it would be convenient; however, my professor pretty much forbids the use of break statements anywhere outside of switch() statements. :/

EDIT: I will look into Scanner and matching thanks for the reply.