Does readLine return null at end of file?

Question

My program is reading lines from a file in groups of 5. I want it to stop reading when it has reached the end of the file. Does readLine return null when there are no more lines or is there another way to end a loop like this?
Thanks!
try {
String a, b, c, d, e;
a = BR.readLine();
b = BR.readLine();
c = BR.readLine();
d = BR.readLine();
e = BR.readLine();
while (a != null){
a = BR.readLine();
b = BR.readLine();
c = BR.readLine();
d = BR.readLine();
e = BR.readLine();
}                              

Answer 1

readLine returns null at end of file. I actually use the following to end my loop...maybe this would help you.
FileReader file = new FileReader("bkupcandilist.bin");
BufferedReader buff = new BufferedReader(file);
boolean eof = false;
while(!eof) {     //retrieve all candidate names          
     scandi = buff.readLine();
     if(scandi == null) {
        eof = true;
     } else {
        atally = new String[2];
           atally[0] = scandi;
           atally[1] = "0";
           listtally.add(atally);
buff.close();