3 characters at the start of txt file

Question

I'm trying to make a program that reads textfiles. I tried this code and it almost works but the output starts with these 3 characters ï»¿
How do I write so it doesn't output them?

 JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
    chooser.setDialogTitle("Select a text file");
    int Checker = chooser.showOpenDialog(null);
    File F = chooser.getSelectedFile();
    String line = null;

    try {
        FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(F);
        BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);
        while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
            System.out.println(line);
        }
        bufferedReader.close();
    } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
        System.out.println("Unable to open file '" + F + "'");
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        System.out.println("Error reading file '" + F + "'");
    }

You see these 3 characters in starting of every line? You can simply use `line.substring(3)` instead of just `line` in `System.out.println(line);`. — user2004685, Mar 11 '16 at 12:08
Add this statement above your `while` loop: `System.out.println(bufferedReader.readLine().substring(3));` — user2004685, Mar 11 '16 at 13:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

1

It's commonly called a BOM (Byte Order Marker) that you can find in files encoded in UTF-8. Here you can find a solution to read a file in utf-8: reading text file with utf-8 encoding using java

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

1
1

answered Mar 11 '16 at 12:10

ADreNaLiNe-DJ

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That almost worked, it removed the first 2 but the ? is still there – no nameide Mar 11 '16 at 12:14
Can you post the content of the file, pls ? Here is the offcicial documentation : https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/i18n/text/stream.html – ADreNaLiNe-DJ Mar 11 '16 at 12:17
the content of the file is "Hejsan" but the outout is "?Hejsan" did the file just to test the program – no nameide Mar 11 '16 at 12:26

Grant Shannon · Answer 2 · 2016-03-11T17:25:20.477

see if this works (using Scanner)

import java.io.*;
   import java.util.Scanner;
   import javax.swing.JFileChooser;

    public class ScanXan {
        public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {


   JFileChooser chooser = new JFileChooser();
    chooser.setDialogTitle("Select a text file");
    int Checker = chooser.showOpenDialog(null);
    File F = chooser.getSelectedFile();


            Scanner s = null;

            try {
                s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader(F)));

                while (s.hasNext()) {
                    System.out.println(s.next());
                }
            } finally {
                if (s != null) {
                    s.close();
                }
            }
        }
    }

reference: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/io/scanning.html

Have just added import *javax.swing.JFileChooser*; to the top of the file - then compiled and ran using BlueJ IDE. It works fine. Let me know if you can't get this code to compile and run. — Grant Shannon, Mar 11 '16 at 18:30

3 characters at the start of txt file

2 Answers2