How to write list values to a text file?

Question

Hi. Does anyone know how to write values stored in a List to a text file? I have a program that asks the user to enter a name and stores it in a list. The number of names in the list depends on how many times the user wants to enter a name. The problem is that my writeToFile method, which handles writing values to a text file, only writes one name and overwrites any previous names. How could I fix this so that it goes thru the list and writes every value to the file? Any hints would be appreciated!
peace
Chris
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
public class StoreNames
String name;
char answer;
BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
public void anotherName(List a)throws IOException
System.out.println("Enter another name? (Y or N)");
answer = (char)System.in.read();
System.in.skip(2);
while(answer == 'Y' || answer == 'y')
inputName(a);
System.out.println("Enter another name? (Y or N)");
answer = (char)System.in.read();
System.in.skip(2);
if (answer == 'N' || answer == 'n')
System.out.println("Ok. GoodBye");
writeToFile(a);
//prompts user to input names
public void inputName(List a) throws IOException
System.out.print("Enter a name: ");
name = input.readLine();
a.add(name);
public void writeToFile(List a)throws IOException
PrintWriter output = new PrintWriter(new FileWriter("names.txt"));
output.print(name); //Problem area - handles only one line of input, overwrites previous input
output.close();

Answer 1

System.out is an instance of PrintStream (check the API documents for the System class to see this).
So the easiest way to convert from a "print to screen" class to a "print to file" class is to acquire a PrintStream that prints to a file, and use it exactly the same as you'd have used System.out...
So start with your console code...
        PrintStream out = System.out;
        for(int i = 0; i <10; i++){
            out.println("Number " +i);
        }Then you adapt to file code:
        FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("temp.txt");
        PrintStream out = new PrintStream(fos);
        for(int i = 0; i <10; i++){
            out.println("Number " +i);
        out.flush();
        out.close();Note that we flush the stream because for reasons of efficiency files aren't necessarily written to disk until you explicitly ask the system to do so (memory is fast, disks are slow, that's why).
Closing the stream releases system resources associated with it.
Actually, that's redundant, because close calls flush automatically, but I left it in for clarity.
Any use ?