Java - write multiline string to file

Question

I have a string with multilines in it as shown below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<books>

    <book publishyear="1990">
        <name>Harry Potter</name>
    </book> 
</books>

how do I write this to a file? I have tried with buffered writer but, it doesn't take the string in multiline.

 try{
           FileWriter fstream = new FileWriter("D:/temp.txt");
           BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(fstream);
           out.write(" <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<books>

    <book publishyear="1990">
        <name>Harry Potter</name>
    </book> 
</books>");

           out.close();
  }catch (Exception e){//Catch exception if any
        System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
    }

you could try to add \n for line breaks in files. e.g.: <books>\n <book publish..... — mooonli
– mooonli, Commented Feb 18, 2013 at 9:45
You should first make sure you have properly escaped the quotes in the string, such as those round "UTF-8". — RoryB
– RoryB, Commented Feb 18, 2013 at 9:47
put everything into a StringBuffer/Builder and then write the toString() version of it, in the file. String concat for so many lines, is troublesome. — Rahul
– Rahul, Commented Feb 18, 2013 at 9:56

Michael-O · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-18 09:45:55Z

5

Never ever write XML documents manually. You will fail in file encoding, you will fail in syntax errors. Always use DOM ore something similar. Your demo code already contains errors.

answered Feb 18, 2013 at 9:45

Michael-O

18.4k6 gold badges58 silver badges129 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

shockwave Over a year ago

Hi Michael, i have a string to be written into a file.the string can be of plaintext/xml/anything with multiline. So I don't know what type of String I get....So is it possible to write multiline string into a file?

Michael-O Over a year ago

If you are unaware of the content, then the client MUST provide valid input since you are providing writing capabilities only.

nos · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-18 09:56:22Z

3

This isn't related to writing a string or BufferedWriter.

Java does not have multiline strings, so you'll have to concatenate strings if you want them on multiline in the source code. You also need to replace actual newlines with the escaped \n character, and escape " with \"

That is, you do:

String foo = "<?xml version="1.0" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n"+
"<books>\n"+
"   <book publishyear=\"1990\">\n"+
"        <name>Harry Potter</name>\n"+
"    </book>\n"+
"</books>";

out.write(foo);

You can write all this on one line in your source code too if you want:

out.write("<?xml version="1.0" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<books>\n ... etc.etc."));

edited Feb 18, 2013 at 9:56

answered Feb 18, 2013 at 9:48

nos

231k60 gold badges436 silver badges516 bronze badges

Comments

Javier · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-18 09:51:26Z

0

You should escape the quotes and use a PrintWriter, which provides a println method.

PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(fstream));

out.println("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>");
out.println("<books>)";

Alternatively you can append line terminators to your string:

 out.write("<books>\r\n");

answered Feb 18, 2013 at 9:51

Javier

12.4k5 gold badges50 silver badges59 bronze badges

Comments

asifsid88 · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-18 10:49:41Z

0

You can definitely write on a new line by using BufferedWriter
See below code as an example, incorporate with your own logic (giving example of writing new line in a file write)

BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(System.out));
writer.write("I am the first Line");
writer.newLine();
writer.write("I am in the second Line");

writer.close();

You need to make the use of newLine() method present in BufferedWriter
Hope this helps and you don't have to change your code to new output stream :)

answered Feb 18, 2013 at 10:49

asifsid88

4,71122 silver badges30 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Java - write multiline string to file

4 Answers 4

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related