Converting a text file into a String

Question

I need to convert a text file (in whatever format, in my case it would be xml and xsl files) in a String.
I made this methods:
public static String createStringFromFile(File f) {
        StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
        try {
            FileInputStream fInp = new FileInputStream(f);
            byte[] byteArray = new byte[fInp.available()];
            int bLetti = fInp.read(byteArray);  
            if (bLetti == fInp.available()) {
                for (int i=0; i<fInp.available(); i++)
                    buf.append(Byte.toString(byteArray));
else
throw (new IOException("Errore nella lettura del file"));
fInp.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
ErrorManager.getError(e);
return (buf.toString());
public static String createStringFromFile(String fileName) {
StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
try {
FileInputStream fInp = new FileInputStream(fileName);
byte[] byteArray = new byte[fInp.available()];
int bLetti = fInp.read(byteArray);
if (bLetti == fInp.available()) {
for (int i=0; i<fInp.available(); i++)
buf.append(Byte.toString(byteArray[i]));
else
throw (new IOException("Errore nella lettura del file"));
fInp.close();
} catch (Exception e) {
ErrorManager.getError(e);
return (buf.toString());
There are no compilation or runtime errors, but the result string is empty. Not null, empty. What should I do? :)

Answer 1

Do you really want to use bytes and so on when java does it all for you?
Here's how I did it, hope it's useful.
public String getFileAsString(String fileName){
     StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
     try{
     BufferedReader bRead = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File(fileName)));
     String str = "";
     while( (str = bRead.readLine()) != null ){
          buffer.append(str);
     }//end while
     bRead.close();
     }catch(Exception e){
     System.err.println("in getFileAsString(): " + e.toString());
     }//end try
     return buffer.toString();
}//end getAsString()