FileNotFoundException being thrown while file is present. File name might contain special characters

Question

I wonder if anyone knows why I may be getting a java.io.FileNotFoundException when I'm trying to find a file that I know exists in the directory.

I think the following have something to do with it, please let me know if I'm correct or if there's something else:

1. I downgraded my JVM from 1.7 to 1.6
2. The file name contains two question marks, so the file is called filename_?)?.data

While I was using JVM 1.7, the program was able to find the file and open it. However, after downgrading to 1.6, it looks like it can't find this particular file. So I'm thinking maybe JVM 1.6 can't read files w/ question marks in them.

Also, I double/triple checked and the file does exist in the directory my program is looking in (its able to find other files in there as well).

Here's my code below:

public Object readFromFile(String fileName) {
    // Check for null
    if (fileName == null || fileName.equals("")) return null;

    Object obj = null;
    ObjectInputStream input = null;

    // Open file into (input)
    try {
        input = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream(fileName + ".data"));
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    // Read content of file into (obj)
    try {
        obj = input.readObject();
        input.close();
    } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return obj;
}

Answer 1

probably you need to encode your filename when it is using special chars

Try this

String fileNameNew= java.net.URLEncoder.encode(fileName);
if (fileNameNew == null || fileNameNew.equals("")) return null;

Object obj = null;
ObjectInputStream input = null;
...

and you might check here: How to determine if a String contains invalid encoded characters