How do I write to a .txt file in Android?

Question

I have an app that needs to read and write to a text file. I have it reading, but I don't have it writing. The idea is that when I click the save button on the screen, its going to save all the info that has been put into the textviews into an array and the write each segment of the array into the text file. This is my code for the writing portion:

public class AddOrModify extends Activity {

    private Button Savebtn;
    private Button Cancelbtn;
    private EditText NameofRoute;
    private EditText Address1;
    private EditText City1;
    private EditText State1;
    private EditText Zip1;
    private EditText Address2;
    private EditText City2;
    private EditText State2;
    private EditText zip2;




        @Override
        public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            setContentView(R.layout.add_or_modify);

            Savebtn = (Button)findViewById(R.id.savebtn);
            Savebtn.setOnClickListener(new btnlistenersave());

            Cancelbtn = (Button)findViewById(R.id.cancelbtn);
            Cancelbtn.setOnClickListener(new btnlistenercancel());

        }

        private class btnlistenersave implements View.OnClickListener{
            public void onClick(View v) {

                NameofRoute = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.NameofRoute);
                Address1 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.editAddress1);
                City1 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.City1);
                State1= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.State1);
                Zip1 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.Zip1);
                Address2= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.Address2);
                City2 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.City2);
                State2 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.State2);
                zip2 = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.Zip2);

                //String[] mySettings ={NameofRouteinput,Address1input,City1input, State1input,Zip1input,Address2input,City2input,State2input,Zip2input,";"};


               // if(mySettings != null){ 
                try{

                    String NameofRouteinput = NameofRoute.getText().toString();
                    String Address1input = Address1.getText().toString();
                    String City1input = City1.getText().toString();
                    String State1input=State1.getText().toString();
                    String Zip1input = Zip1.getText().toString();
                    String Address2input =Address2.getText().toString();
                    String City2input = City2.getText().toString();
                    String State2input = State2.getText().toString();
                    String Zip2input= zip2.getText().toString();
                    OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(openFileOutput("myaddress.txt",0));

                    String[] mySettings ={NameofRouteinput,Address1input,City1input, State1input,Zip1input,Address2input,City2input,State2input,Zip2input,";"};


                    for(int i =0; i < mySettings.length; i++)
                    out.write(mySettings[i]);
                    out.close();
                }
                catch (java.io.IOException e){

                }


                Intent i = new Intent(AddOrModify.this, Frontpage.class);
                startActivity(i);

            }

        }

        private class btnlistenercancel implements View.OnClickListener{

            public void onClick(View v) {
                Intent i = new Intent(AddOrModify.this, Frontpage.class);
                startActivity(i);
            }

        }

}

score 17 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '15 at 09:19

17

with mari's solution i was getting

       java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: contains a path separator

then i tried following and it worked for me

  File root = new File(DIRECTORY_PATH);
  File gpxfile = new File(root, "samples.txt");
  FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(gpxfile);
  writer.append("First string is here to be written.");
  writer.flush();
  writer.close();

you can loop it to write multiple lines

answered Jan 07 '15 at 09:19

Zeeshan Ghazanfar

1,351
11
11

1

What is DIRECTORY_PATH equal to? – tgkprog Dec 31 '16 at 13:42
4

@tgkprog You can either use default directory `Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString()` or if you have created your own Directory then you use some thing like `Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString()+"/Your Directory/"` – Zeeshan Ghazanfar Jan 01 '17 at 17:11
Ahh understood :) I would prefer File path = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(),"Your Directory/subpath/a" ) this will look after the / . but thanks for teaching me about Environment - new to android https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Environment.html – tgkprog Jan 01 '17 at 19:10

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 07 '13 at 04:34

6

You can use FileOutputStream instead of OutputStreamWriter, something like this:

File file = getFileStreamPath("test.txt");

if (!file.exists()) {
   file.createNewFile();
}

FileOutputStream writer = openFileOutput(file.getName(), Context.MODE_PRIVATE);

for (String string: data){
    writer.write(string.getBytes());
    writer.flush();
}

writer.close();

Check the android docs.

edited Mar 07 '13 at 04:34

Almas Adilbek

4,371
10
58
97

answered Dec 08 '12 at 16:29

mari

864
3
12
32

Can i do this with a whole array though? your example has me writing one string, i need to do that for many values, or am i going to have to do them individually? – Chris Braswell Dec 08 '12 at 16:36
Yes, should work too... i updated the answer for you. I hope I helped. – mari Dec 08 '12 at 20:51
What is supposed to go in the "data" area? I've tried putting a string, a string array, and a bunch of other things there. Either it gives me an error, or makes all of the other lines get an IOException. – Marcel Marino Jan 02 '14 at 20:29
@Dooomsknight That's what I thought too. But I get an IOException on every other line when I do that. What wound up happening is that I needed to surround it in a try/catch. – Marcel Marino Jan 03 '14 at 17:13

How do I write to a .txt file in Android?

2 Answers2

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