Diagnosing Integer.parseInt() Error

Question

I am reading in pipe delimitated text in from a flat file and am having an error parsing the text. I am an old Java hand but I haven't touched it for a few years. Here is the code:

        String zipString = tokenizerForOneLine.nextToken();
        System.out.println( "Zip String: -->" + zipString + "<--");
        //zipString = "18103"; <<<This works!!!
        int zipInt = Integer.parseInt( zipString );
        aProvider.setZipCode( zipInteger );

Here is the output:

Zip String: -->�1�8�1�0�3�<--
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "�1�8�1�0�3�"
NumberFormatException while reading file.
Detailed Message: For input string: "�1�8�1�0�3�"

My naive guess is that it is an encoding issue. Is this possible? It makes no sense to me. Or I am doing something really dumb and just don't see it?

How do I diagnose the encoding issue? (My data vendor claims it is in standard UNICODE).

Thanks-in-advance,

Guido

Well that's wierd. After StackOverflow processed it it showed a whole bunch of wierd question marks. Now I am really thinking it is the encoding. Those question marks do not appear in the standard output display (in Netbeans 7.01). — Guido Anselmi
– Guido Anselmi, Commented Nov 4, 2011 at 17:06
@GuidoAnselmi: As ever, to check encoding issues, look at the text file in a binary editor (or hexdump or whatever). My guess is that it's UTF-16. — Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet, Commented Nov 4, 2011 at 17:10

Emmanuel Bourg · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-04 17:24:43Z

6

Make sure you are building a reader with the proper encoding. Your code should look this:

    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream("data.csv"), encoding));
    String line;
    while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
        StringTokenizer tokenizer = new StringTokenizer(line, "|");

        ...
    }

The encoding is probably UTF-16.

Also, if the file has byte order marks you might use the BOMInputStream from Commons IO to detect the encoding automatically.

http://commons.apache.org/io/api-release/org/apache/commons/io/input/BOMInputStream.html

edited Nov 4, 2011 at 17:24

answered Nov 4, 2011 at 17:13

Emmanuel Bourg

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