Why is my catch blocking saying this....

Question

public void populateNotesFromFile()
{
    try{
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED));
        String fileNotes = reader.readLine();

        while(fileNotes != null){
            notes.add(fileNotes);
            fileNotes = reader.readLine();
        }
        reader.close();
    }
    catch (IOException e){
        System.err.println("The desired file " + DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED + " has problems being read from");
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e){
        System.err.println("Unable to open " + DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED);
    }

    //make sure we have one note
    if (notes.size() == 0){
        notes.add("There are no notes stored in your note book");
    }       
}

Whenever i compile the above i get a message saying cannot find symbol class IOException e

can someone tell me how to fix it please :d

thanks

Answer 1

You need

import java.io;

at the top of your file.

Also, FileNotFoundException needs to be above IOException since it's a subclass of IOException.

Answer 2

You need to either import the java.io.* package at the top of the file, or fully-qualify the exception as java.io.IOException

Answer 3

IOException is a class from the java.io package, so in order to use it, you should add an import declaration to your code. import java.io.*; (at the very top of the java file, between the package name and your class declaration)

FileNotFoundException is a IOException. It's a specialisation of IOException. Once you have caught the IOException, the flow of the program will never get to the point of checking for a more specific IOException. Just swap these two, to test for the more specific case first (FileNotFound) and then handle (catch) any other possible IOExceptions.

Answer 4

Switch the order of FileNotFoundException and IOException

Answer 5

Your probably missing an import reference to IOException class. I'ts located in the java.io package.

Can I suggest a litle change in you method? Always close the stream in a finally block:

public void populateNotesFromFile() {
 BufferedReader reader = null;
 try {
  reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED));
  String fileNotes = reader.readLine();
  while (fileNotes != null) {
   notes.add(fileNotes);
   fileNotes = reader.readLine();
  }
 } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
  System.err.println("Unable to open " + DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED);
 } catch (IOException e) {
  System.err.println("The desired file " + DEFAULT_NOTES_SAVED
    + " has problems being read from");
 } finally {
  try {
   reader.close();
  } catch (IOException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
 }

 // make sure we have one note
 if (notes.size() == 0) {
  notes.add("There are no notes stored in your note book");
 }
}