Reading files with Kotlin

Before Kotlin

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("data.txt"));
try {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    String line = br.readLine();

    while (line != null) {
        sb.append(line);
        sb.append(System.lineSeparator());
        line = br.readLine();
    }
    String content = sb.toString();
} finally {
    br.close();
}

This is a code sample reading a files content in plain old Java. What a mess 🙂

With Kotlin

Look at this beauty!

val file = File("./data.txt")
val contents = file.readText()
val lines = contents.lines()
// printing lines
lines.forEach {
    println(it)
}

Yes there is Apache commons IO and yes since java 7 things have been easier as well, but with Kotlin I feel like I can concentrate on solving problems and not trying to don’t do things wrong 🙂

Further Reading

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4716503/reading-a-plain-text-file-in-java

Kotlin Tutorial