Issue
I would like to create a simple program (in Java) which edits text files - particularly one which performs inserting arbitrary pieces of text at random positions in a text file. This feature is part of a larger program I am currently writing.
Reading the description about java.util.RandomAccessFile, it appears that any write operations performed in the middle of a file would actually overwrite the exiting content. This is a side-effect which I would like to avoid (if possible).
Is there a simple way to achieve this?
Thanks in advance.
Solution
Okay, this question is pretty old, but FileChannels exist since Java 1.4 and I don't know why they aren't mentioned anywhere when dealing with the problem of replacing or inserting content in files. FileChannels are fast, use them.
Here's an example (ignoring exceptions and some other stuff):
public void insert(String filename, long offset, byte[] content) {
RandomAccessFile r = new RandomAccessFile(new File(filename), "rw");
RandomAccessFile rtemp = new RandomAccessFile(new File(filename + "~"), "rw");
long fileSize = r.length();
FileChannel sourceChannel = r.getChannel();
FileChannel targetChannel = rtemp.getChannel();
sourceChannel.transferTo(offset, (fileSize - offset), targetChannel);
sourceChannel.truncate(offset);
r.seek(offset);
r.write(content);
long newOffset = r.getFilePointer();
targetChannel.position(0L);
sourceChannel.transferFrom(targetChannel, newOffset, (fileSize - offset));
sourceChannel.close();
targetChannel.close();
}
Answered By - xor_eq