IndexOutOfBoundsException from FIS.read() method

Question

I am trying to read 8 bytes from a FIS
According to the API for this method I should be able to read bytes 3 - 11 by using an offset of 3 and a length of 8 which is what
fin.read(l_data_array, i_offset, i_length); is supposed to do but if my offset is >0 then it fails.
Any ideas what is wrong?
( My file is approx 3KB so this is not the prob and the first method call does read 8 bytes )
    byte [] x = readBytesFromFile(0, 8); //ok
    byte [] x = readBytesFromFile(3, 8); //IndexOutOfBoundsException  thrown
   private byte [] readBytesFromFile( int i_offset, int i_length){
      byte[] l_data_array = new byte[i_length];
      try {
         File fd = new File(m_db);
         FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(fd);
         fin.read(l_data_array, i_offset, i_length);
         fin.close();
      catch (FileNotFoundException fnf) {
         System.out.println("File not found Exception");
      catch (IOException ioe) {
         System.out.println("IO Exception");
      return l_data_array;
   }error :
java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException
     at java.io.FileInputStream.readBytes(Native Method)
     at java.io.FileInputStream.read(FileInputStream.java:194)
     at Rule109_Automation_Package.Rule_109_Processor.readBytesFromFile(Rule_109_Processor.java:224)

Answer 1

Thanks for the replies folks.
The file I will be reading in will, for the first part of the development phase, serve as a a Database. So it is liable to become > 1MB.
Each record will be 1KB long, stored sequentially. So you are saying that if I want to read record No 999 I have to have a byte [] which can hold 999 * 1000 bytes. Seems a waste of resources ( Even though temporary ) that I can't move a pointer along the FIS and read say, bytes 9,000 to 10,000 into an array like ( byte[1000] ) instead of needing an array like ( byte [10,000] )
What kind of kinky reason do sun have for this?