Java - Writing and Reading ArrayList to and from .txt file - BufferedWriter

Question

Some Background:

I'm making an RPG text based game for class, and I'm using an ArrayList for the inventory, since of course, it will constantly be changing whenever another item is added. I want to be able to save this ArrayList into a txt file and I want to be able to load it back into the same ArrayList so the player can pick up where they left off.

I'm using FileReader and FileWriter , and BufferedReader and BufferedWriter currently. This is because someone else in the class made the save method for me, so I don't really know how to change it to something else if I wanted. Can I do what I'm trying to do with BufferedWriter ? I don't really know what kind of code I should put on here, but this is how I declared the ArrayList if that helps:

ArrayList<String> bagWeapons = new ArrayList<String>();

And my save method is:

void save(){
    try {
        FileWriter fileWriter =
            new FileWriter(fileName);`

        BufferedWriter bufferedWriter =
            new BufferedWriter(fileWriter);

        //EDIT ZONE         


        bufferedWriter.write(name); //playerName
        bufferedWriter.newLine();
        String hpSave = String.valueOf(hp1); //tempHP conversion
        bufferedWriter.write(hpSave); //playertempHP
        bufferedWriter.newLine();
        String fullhpSave = String.valueOf(fullHP);
        bufferedWriter.write(fullhpSave); //playerfullHP
        bufferedWriter.newLine();


        for(int i=0; i<bagWeapons.size(); i++)
            bufferedWriter.write(bagWeapons.get(i) + ","); //player weapon inventory
        //END EDIT ZONE

        bufferedWriter.close();
    }
    catch(IOException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Error writing to file '"
            + fileName + "'");  
    }
}

Does the "for" loop work like that? The print on the text file is: WeaponName,WeaponName,WeaponName, ....

I have no idea what I would do to write the ArrayList back. I've tried stuff but my program blows up every time.

Answer 1

The for loop work like this.To read the data back, you could read the whole string example: weapon1,item2,item99 into a String object and then split the String with a delimiter "," using split function of string class and then build the new array.example.

String text="weapon1,item2,item99";
String parts[]=text.split(",");
for(int i=0;i<parts.length();i++)
  Inventory.add.parts[i]  // or however you set it up.