How can I read comma separated values from a text file in Java?

Question

I have got this text file with latitude and longitude values of different points on a map.

How can I split my string into latitudes and longitudes? What is the general way to do these type of things that is with other delimiters like space or tab etc.? Sample file:

28.515046280572285,77.38258838653564
28.51430151808072,77.38336086273193
28.513566177802456,77.38413333892822
28.512830832397192,77.38490581512451
28.51208605426073,77.3856782913208
28.511341270865113,77.38645076751709

This is the code I am using to read from the file:

try(BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("C:\\test.txt"))) {
    String str;
    while ((str = in.readLine()) != null) {
        System.out.println(str);
    }
}
catch (IOException e) {
    System.out.println("File Read Error");
}

Answer 1

You may use the String.split() method:

String[] tokens = str.split(",");

After that, use Double.parseDouble() method to parse the string value to a double.

double latitude = Double.parseDouble(tokens[0]);
double longitude = Double.parseDouble(tokens[1]);

Similar parse methods exist in the other wrapper classes as well - Integer, Boolean, etc.

Answer 2

Use OpenCSV for reliability. Split should never be used for these kind of things. Here's a snippet from a program of my own, it's pretty straightforward. I check if a delimiter character was specified and use this one if it is, if not I use the default in OpenCSV (a comma). Then i read the header and fields

CSVReader reader = null;
try {
    if (delimiter > 0) {
        reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader(this.csvFile), this.delimiter);
    }
    else {
        reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader(this.csvFile));
    }

    // these should be the header fields
    header = reader.readNext();
    while ((fields = reader.readNext()) != null) {
        // more code
    }
catch (IOException e) {
    System.err.println(e.getMessage());
}

Answer 3

To split your String by comma(,) use str.split(",") and for tab use str.split("\\t")

    try {
        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
                               new FileReader("G:\\RoutePPAdvant2.txt"));
        String str;

        while ((str = in.readLine())!= null) {
            String[] ar=str.split(",");
            ...
        }
        in.close();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        System.out.println("File Read Error");
    }

Answer 4

Use BigDecimal, not double

The Answer by adatapost is right about using String::split but wrong about using double to represent your longitude-latitude values. The float/Float and double/Double types use floating-point technology which trades away accuracy for speed of execution.

Instead use BigDecimal to correctly represent your lat-long values.

Use Apache Commons CSV library

Also, best to let a library such as Apache Commons CSV perform the chore of reading and writing CSV or Tab-delimited files.

Example app

Here is a complete example app using that Commons CSV library. This app writes then reads a data file. It uses String::split for the writing. And the app uses BigDecimal objects to represent your lat-long values.

package work.basil.example;

import org.apache.commons.csv.CSVFormat;
import org.apache.commons.csv.CSVPrinter;
import org.apache.commons.csv.CSVRecord;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.time.Instant;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.ThreadLocalRandom;

public class LatLong
{
    //----------|  Write  |-----------------------------
    public void write ( final Path path )
    {
        List < String > inputs =
                List.of(
                        "28.515046280572285,77.38258838653564" ,
                        "28.51430151808072,77.38336086273193" ,
                        "28.513566177802456,77.38413333892822" ,
                        "28.512830832397192,77.38490581512451" ,
                        "28.51208605426073,77.3856782913208" ,
                        "28.511341270865113,77.38645076751709" );

        // Use try-with-resources syntax to auto-close the `CSVPrinter`.
        try ( final CSVPrinter printer = CSVFormat.RFC4180.withHeader( "latitude" , "longitude" ).print( path , StandardCharsets.UTF_8 ) ; )
        {
            for ( String input : inputs )
            {
                String[] fields = input.split( "," );
                printer.printRecord( fields[ 0 ] , fields[ 1 ] );
            }
        } catch ( IOException e )
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    //----------|  Read  |-----------------------------
    public void read ( Path path )
    {
        // TODO: Add a check for valid file existing.

        try
        {
            // Read CSV file.
            BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader( path );
            Iterable < CSVRecord > records = CSVFormat.RFC4180.withFirstRecordAsHeader().parse( reader );
            for ( CSVRecord record : records )
            {
                BigDecimal latitude = new BigDecimal( record.get( "latitude" ) );
                BigDecimal longitude = new BigDecimal( record.get( "longitude" ) );
                System.out.println( "lat: " + latitude + " | long: " + longitude );
            }
        } catch ( IOException e )
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    //----------|  Main  |-----------------------------
    public static void main ( String[] args )
    {
        LatLong app = new LatLong();

        // Write
        Path pathOutput = Paths.get( "/Users/basilbourque/lat-long.csv" );
        app.write( pathOutput );
        System.out.println( "Writing file: " + pathOutput );

        // Read
        Path pathInput = Paths.get( "/Users/basilbourque/lat-long.csv" );
        app.read( pathInput );

        System.out.println( "Done writing & reading lat-long data file. " + Instant.now() );
    }

}

Answer 5

//lat=3434&lon=yy38&rd=1.0&| in that format o/p is displaying

public class ReadText {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        FileInputStream f= new FileInputStream("D:/workplace/sample/bookstore.txt");
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(f));
        String strline;
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        while ((strline = br.readLine()) != null)
        {
            String[] arraylist=StringUtils.split(strline, ",");
            if(arraylist.length == 2){
                sb.append("lat=").append(StringUtils.trim(arraylist[0])).append("&lon=").append(StringUtils.trim(arraylist[1])).append("&rt=1.0&|");

            } else {
                System.out.println("Error: "+strline);
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Data: "+sb.toString());
    }
}

Answer 6

You can also use the java.util.Scanner class.

private static void readFileWithScanner() {
    File file = new File("path/to/your/file/file.txt");

    Scanner scan = null;

    try {
        scan = new Scanner(file);

        while (scan.hasNextLine()) {
            String line = scan.nextLine();
            String[] lineArray = line.split(",");
            // do something with lineArray, such as instantiate an object
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        scan.close();
    }
}