Read in text file pass to an array of objects Java

Question

I am creating a program like Mint.

right now, I am getting information from a text file, splitting it by the spaces, then going to pass it to the Constructor of another class to create objects. I am having a bit of trouble getting that done properly.

I don't know how to get the information I actually need from the text file with all the extra stuff that's in it.

I need to have an array of objects that has 100 spots. The Constructor is

public Expense (int cN, String desc, SimpleDateFormat dt, double amt, boolean repeat)

The file comes as :

(0,"Cell Phone Plan", new SimpleDateFormat("08/15/2015"), 85.22, true);
(0,"Car Insurance", new SimpleDateFormat("08/05/2015"), 45.22, true);
(0,"Office Depot - filing cabinet", new SimpleDateFormat("08/31/2015"), 185.22, false);
(0,"Gateway - oil change", new SimpleDateFormat("08/29/2015"), 35.42, false);

Below is my code for the main:

Expense expense[]  = new Expense[100];
    Expense e = new Expense();
    int catNum;
    String name;
    SimpleDateFormat date = new SimpleDateFormat("01/01/2015");
    double price;
    boolean monthly; 

    try {
        File file = new File("expenses.txt");
        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(file);

        while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {                
            String line = scanner.nextLine();
            String array[] = line.split(",");

            expenses[i] = new Expense(catNum, name, date, price, monthly);


        }
        scanner.close();
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

Answer 1

Step by step:

//(0,"Cell Phone Plan", new SimpleDateFormat("08/15/2015"), 85.22, true);
String array[] = line.split(",");

Will produce this array

[0] (0
[1] "Cell Phone Plan"
[2] new SimpleDateFormat("08/15/2015")
[3] 85.22
[4] true);

So

expenses[i] = new Expense(catNum, name, date, price, monthly);

Wont work because it expects another data in almost each parameter:

In order to fix this:

• you must ignore ( and ); when splitting line
• be careful with " in the given string, you must scape this characters or ignore them
• you wont be able to use: new SimpleDateFormat("08/15/2015") you must create the object by yourself
• this is not a correct date format "08/15/2015"!!!!

---

SOLUTION: if you are creating the file to parse , I would recommend to change it's format to:

//(0,"Cell Phone Plan", new SimpleDateFormat("08/15/2015"), 85.22, true);
0,Cell Phone Plan,MM/dd/yyyy,85.22,true

Then:

String array[] = line.split(",");

Will produce

[0] 0
[1] Cell Phone Plan
[2] MM/dd/yyyy
[3] 85.22
[4] true

Then you can simply parse non string values with:

• new SimpleDateFormat(array[2]) .
• Double.parseDouble(array[3])
• Boolean.parseBoolean(array[4])

---

UPDATE

Check here a working demo that you must adapt to make it work .

OUTPUT:

public Expense (0, Cell Phone Plan, 08/15/2015, 85.22, false  );
public Expense (0, Car Insurance, 08/05/2015, 45.22, false  );