How to read a text delimited file using 2 dimentional array in java ??

Question

hi,
I am new to java programming.. I have to do a task where in i have to read a text delimeted file in an array.. For example.. If the file is as follows
Name place Value
adi goa 20
shri mumbai 30
riya bangalr 45
I want it to be read in java so as to get an array[row][columns]
This is something i am currently upto, but cant get any further.
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
public class generateGML{
public static void main(String[] argv)
throws Exception{
BufferedReader fh = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("filename.txt"));
String s;
while ((s=fh.readLine())!=null){
String[] columns = s.split("\t");
String name = columns[0];
String place = columns[1];
String value = columns[2];
It reads columns,But I want it two dimentionally,as in something like matrix[row_num][column_num].
Can anyone please suggest me..

Answer 1

You could do the following:
String[][] array = new String[rows][];
int row_num = 0;
while ((s=fh.readLine())!=null) {
   array[row_num++] = s.split("\t");
}However, you need to know ahead of time how many rows to allocate. If you allocate more than needed, you'll need to copy to a new array, or you'll need to keep track of how much is actually populated. If you allocate less than needed, you'll get an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException.
Another (likely better) approach is:
Do you really need it as a 2-dimensional array? Can you make a List of objects that have a name, place, and value? Then you don't need to know how big of a list to allocate ahead of time, assuming you use a list that grows itself (like ArrayList or LinkedList). Your code would be much easier to read if you could say:
String name = list.get(10).getName();instead of
String name = array[10][0];