Why can't I obtain a FileChannel from a FileWriter ?

Question

Hi,

I'm wandering why getChannel is only implemented in FileOutputStream and not in FileWriter.

Is there any true reason ? Is there a way to lock a FileWriter another way ?

thanks...

Answer 1

I suspect it is an oversight - note that FileWriter is a subclass of OutputStreamWriter that does nothing except pass a FileOutputStream to the superclass constructor.

Note also that you should almost never use FileWriter since it does not allow you to specify the encoding. Instead, "manually" wrap a FileOutputStream in an OutputStreamWriter - then you can also obtain the corresponding channel for locking.