Importing text file into 2D char array

Question

Hey folks. I've aged a few years trying to figure this project out. Im trying to make a crossword puzzle and am having problems importing the answer letters into a 2D array of 15*15. The text file would look something like this:
LAPSE TAP RAH
AVAIL OLE ODE
BARGE PARADOX
etc
I have JTextFields that the user will answer and a button the user can press to see if the answers are right by comparing the 2D array answer with what the user inputted.-the user input would be scanned and put into a 2D array also.
How should i go about inserting each letter into an array? The spaces i would later need to make code to grey out the text field. This is what i have so far. Forgive me if its sloppy.
     class gridPanel extends JPanel
          //----Setting Grid variables
          private static final int ROWS = 15;
          private static final int COLS = 15;
          String[] letters = { "A", "B", "C", "D", "E" };// To test entering strings into array
           gridPanel()
             this.setBackground(Color.BLUE);
             //.......Making my JTextField grid for user input
             JTextField[][] grid = new JTextField[ROWS][COLS];
             for(int ROWS = 0; ROWS<grid.length; ROWS++)
                 for(int COLS = 0; COLS<grid.length; COLS++)
                     grid[ROWS][COLS] = new JTextField(1);
                     add(grid[ROWS][COLS]);
                 //grid[ROWS][COLS].setText("" + letters[0]);
             String an = null;
             StringTokenizer tokenizer = null;
             Character[][] answer = new Character[ROWS][COLS];
          try{
             BufferedReader bufAns = new BufferedReader( new FileReader("C:\\xwordanswers.txt"));
             for (int rowCurrent = 0; rowCurrent < ROWS; rowCurrent++)
          an = bufAns.readLine();
          tokenizer = new StringTokenizer(an);
          for (int colCurrent = 0; colCurrent < COLS; colCurrent++) {
          char currentValue = tokenizer.nextToken().charAt(0);//Needs to be changed to reflect each letter
                    answer[rowCurrent][colCurrent] = currentValue;
                System.out.println(currentValue);
          }catch (IOException ioex)           
                    System.err.println(ioex);
                    System.exit(1);
        }//xword graphics end
      This obviously prints the first char of each word, it also gives me an "Exception in thread "main" java.util.NoSuchElementException" error for some reason.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
John

Answer 1

If the file format is stored as follows:
APPLE
L A
PARSE
N E
PEAR then we can parse this into a 2D char array:
char[][] readMap(String fileName) {
    char[][] ret = new char[ROWS][COLS];
    FileInputStream FIS = new FIleInputStream(fileName);
    int i, j;
    for(i = 0; i < ROWS; i++)
        for(j = 0; j < COLS; j++)
            ret[i][j] = FIS.read();
    FIS.close();
    return ret;
}Then you can use the resulting 2D char array in your answer checking mechanism.
Hope this helps~
Alex Lam S.L.