Java Parse Text File To Array

To have an array of arrays you could use an ArrayList like so:

    List<String[]> arrayList = new ArrayList<>();

    while ((myLine = bufRead.readLine()) != null) {
        String[] vals = myLine.split("   ");
        arrayList.add(vals);
    }

This will go through each line, make it into an array and then store it in the ArrayList.

After, you can iterate through your ArrayList like this:

for (String[] currLine : arrayList) {
    for (String currString : currLine) {
         System.out.print(currString + " ");
    }
    System.out.println();
}

This will print:

run:
abc def zed fgf
qwe zxc ghj cvb
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 0 seconds)

EDIT Created a method that will find the index of the value you're looking for. However I suggest that searching for something like "zxc" result in 1,1 and not 2,2 because arrays are indexed at 0.

public static int[] getIndex(List<String[]> arrayList, String tofind) {
    int[] index = new int[]{-1, -1};
    for (int i = 0; i < arrayList.size(); i++) {
        String[] currLine = arrayList.get(i);
        for (int j = 0; j < currLine.length; j++) {
            if (currLine[j].equals(tofind)) {
                index = new int[]{i + 1, j + 1};
                return index;
            }
        }
    }
    return index;
}

While not the most efficient way (it iterates through every Array and every String of that Array) it does get you the result that you're looking for:

Calling it like so:

    int[] zxcIndex = getIndex(arrayList, "zxc");
    System.out.println(zxcIndex[0] + ", " + zxcIndex[1]);

Will print:

2, 2

I wrote this print method up while working on this, you can use it to your convenience for debugging:

public static void printList(List<String[]> arrayList) {
    for (String[] currLine : arrayList) {
        for (String currString : currLine) {
            System.out.print(currString + " ");
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
}

Also, figured you might want to update at a given index, this is a lot easier:

public static void updateIndex(List<String[]> arrayList, int[] toUpdate, String value) {
    String[] rowToUpdate = arrayList.get(toUpdate[0] - 1);
    rowToUpdate[toUpdate[1] - 1] = value;
}

So putting this all together, running the following:

    System.out.println("Current list:");
    printList(arrayList);

    int[] zxcIndex = getIndex(arrayList, "zxc");
    System.out.println("\nIndex of xzc is: " + zxcIndex[0] + ", " + zxcIndex[1] + "\n");

    updateIndex(arrayList, zxcIndex, "lmnop");

    System.out.println("Modified list at index " + zxcIndex[0] + "," + zxcIndex[1] + " :");
    printList(arrayList);

results in:

run:
Current list:
abc def zed fgf
qwe zxc ghj cvb

Index of xzc is: 2, 2

Modified list at index 2,2 :
abc def zed fgf
qwe lmnop ghj cvb
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 0 seconds)