Reading from a txt file

Question

I wrote a method that adds 1 to an int called total each time it sees a new word:

public int GetTotal() throws FileNotFoundException{
    int total = 0;
    Scanner s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("Particles/Names.txt")));
    while(s.hasNext()){
        if(s.hasNext()){
            total++;
        }
    }
    return total;
}

Is that the right way to write it?

Answer 1

It looks fine. But the inner IF is unnecessary, also the next() method is required. Below should be fine.

public int GetTotal() throws FileNotFoundException{
    int total = 0;
    Scanner s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("Particles/Names.txt")));
    while(s.hasNext()){
            s.next();
            total++;
    }
    return total;
}

Answer 2

The Scanner implements Iterator.You should at least make the iterator step forward, like this:

public int GetTotal() throws FileNotFoundException{
int total = 0;
Scanner s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("Particles/Names.txt")));
while(s.hasNext()){
        s.next();
        total++;
}
return total;

}

or the loop will run infinitely.

Answer 3

Use a regular expression to match all non-whitespace. :-)

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class ScanWords {

 public ScanWords() throws FileNotFoundException {
   Scanner scan = new Scanner(new File("path/to/file.txt"));
   int wordCount = 0;
   while (scan.hasNext("\\S+")) {
     scan.next();
     wordCount++;
   }
   System.out.printf("Word Count: %d", wordCount);
 }

 public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    new ScanWords();
  }
}

Answer 4

As others have said you have an infinite loop. Also there is a much simpler way to use Scanner.

    int total = 0;
    Scanner s = new Scanner(new File("/usr/share/dict/words"));

    while(s.hasNext()){
        s.next();
        total++;
    }
    return total;