How to read a file in Java with BufferedReader?

In this section, we will show you how to use java.io.BufferedReader to read content from a file.

1. Files.newBufferedReader (Java 8)

In Java 8, there is a new method Files.newBufferedReader(Paths.get("file")) to return a BufferedReader

myFile.txt

Main.java

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        try (BufferedReader bufferedReader = Files.newBufferedReader
                (Paths.get("C:\\Users\\91807\\Desktop\\myFile.txt"))) {

            // read line by line
            String line;
            while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                stringBuilder.append(line).append("\n");
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.err.format("IOException: %s%n", e);
        }

        System.out.println(stringBuilder);

    }

}

Console Output:

ABC
HIJ
KLM
NOP
QRS

2. BufferedReader

2.1 A classic BufferedReader with JDK 1.7 try-with-resources to auto close 

the resources.

Main.java

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        try (FileReader reader = new FileReader
                ("C:\\Users\\91807\\Desktop\\myFile.txt");
         BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(reader)) {

            // read line by line
            String line;
            while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                System.out.println(line);
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.err.format("IOException: %s%n", e);
        }
    }

}

2.2 In the old style, we have to close everything manually.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        BufferedReader br = null;
        FileReader fr = null;

        try {

            fr = new FileReader("C:\\Users\\91807\\Desktop\\myFile.txt");
            br = new BufferedReader(fr);

            // read line by line
            String line;
            while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
                System.out.println(line);
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.err.format("IOException: %s%n", e);
        } finally {
            try {
                if (br != null)
                    br.close();

                if (fr != null)
                    fr.close();
            } catch (IOException ex) {
                System.err.format("IOException: %s%n", ex);
            }
        }

    }

}