Read/Write String from/to a File in Android

Solution 1:

Hope this might be useful to you.

Write File:

private void writeToFile(String data,Context context) {
    try {
        OutputStreamWriter outputStreamWriter = new OutputStreamWriter(context.openFileOutput("config.txt", Context.MODE_PRIVATE));
        outputStreamWriter.write(data);
        outputStreamWriter.close();
    }
    catch (IOException e) {
        Log.e("Exception", "File write failed: " + e.toString());
    } 
}

Read File:

private String readFromFile(Context context) {

    String ret = "";

    try {
        InputStream inputStream = context.openFileInput("config.txt");

        if ( inputStream != null ) {
            InputStreamReader inputStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(inputStream);
            BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(inputStreamReader);
            String receiveString = "";
            StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

            while ( (receiveString = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null ) {
                stringBuilder.append("\n").append(receiveString);
            }

            inputStream.close();
            ret = stringBuilder.toString();
        }
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        Log.e("login activity", "File not found: " + e.toString());
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Log.e("login activity", "Can not read file: " + e.toString());
    }

    return ret;
}

Solution 2:

For those looking for a general strategy for reading and writing a string to file:

First, get a file object

You'll need the storage path. For the internal storage, use:

File path = context.getFilesDir();

For the external storage (SD card), use:

File path = context.getExternalFilesDir(null);

Then create your file object:

File file = new File(path, "my-file-name.txt");

Write a string to the file

FileOutputStream stream = new FileOutputStream(file);
try {
    stream.write("text-to-write".getBytes());
} finally {
    stream.close();
}

Or with Google Guava

String contents = Files.toString(file, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

Read the file to a string

int length = (int) file.length();

byte[] bytes = new byte[length];

FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(file);
try {
    in.read(bytes);
} finally {
    in.close();
}

String contents = new String(bytes);   

Or if you are using Google Guava

String contents = Files.toString(file,"UTF-8");

For completeness I'll mention

String contents = new Scanner(file).useDelimiter("\\A").next();

which requires no libraries, but benchmarks 50% - 400% slower than the other options (in various tests on my Nexus 5).

Notes

For each of these strategies, you'll be asked to catch an IOException.

The default character encoding on Android is UTF-8.

If you are using external storage, you'll need to add to your manifest either:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

or

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

Write permission implies read permission, so you don't need both.

Solution 3:

public static void writeStringAsFile(final String fileContents, String fileName) {
    Context context = App.instance.getApplicationContext();
    try {
        FileWriter out = new FileWriter(new File(context.getFilesDir(), fileName));
        out.write(fileContents);
        out.close();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Logger.logError(TAG, e);
    }
}

public static String readFileAsString(String fileName) {
    Context context = App.instance.getApplicationContext();
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    String line;
    BufferedReader in = null;

    try {
        in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File(context.getFilesDir(), fileName)));
        while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) stringBuilder.append(line);

    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        Logger.logError(TAG, e);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Logger.logError(TAG, e);
    } 

    return stringBuilder.toString();
}

Solution 4:

Just a a bit modifications on reading string from a file method for more performance

private String readFromFile(Context context, String fileName) {
    if (context == null) {
        return null;
    }

    String ret = "";

    try {
        InputStream inputStream = context.openFileInput(fileName);

        if ( inputStream != null ) {
            InputStreamReader inputStreamReader = new InputStreamReader(inputStream);               

            int size = inputStream.available();
            char[] buffer = new char[size];

            inputStreamReader.read(buffer);

            inputStream.close();
            ret = new String(buffer);
        }
    }catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return ret;
}

Solution 5:

check the below code.

Reading from a file in the filesystem.

FileInputStream fis = null;
    try {

        fis = context.openFileInput(fileName);
        InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(fis);
        // READ STRING OF UNKNOWN LENGTH
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        char[] inputBuffer = new char[2048];
        int l;
        // FILL BUFFER WITH DATA
        while ((l = isr.read(inputBuffer)) != -1) {
            sb.append(inputBuffer, 0, l);
        }
        // CONVERT BYTES TO STRING
        String readString = sb.toString();
        fis.close();

    catch (Exception e) {

    } finally {
        if (fis != null) {
            fis = null;
        }
    }

below code is to write the file in to internal filesystem.

FileOutputStream fos = null;
    try {

        fos = context.openFileOutput(fileName, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        fos.write(stringdatatobestoredinfile.getBytes());
        fos.flush();
        fos.close();

    } catch (Exception e) {

    } finally {
        if (fos != null) {
            fos = null;
        }
    }

I think this will help you.