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() 

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