Reading .txt file into char array, file not found error. (Basic IO)

Question

Iv been having some trouble with reading characters from a text file into a char array. I havnt been learning io for very long but i think im getting the hang of it. Reading and writing raw bytes
and things like that. But i wanted to try using java.io.FileReader to read characters for a change and im having problems with file not found errors. here is the code.
try
File theFile = new File("Mr.DocumentReadMe.txt");
String path = theFile.getCanonicalPath();
FileReader readMe = new FileReader(path);
char buffer[] = new char[(int)theFile.length()];
int readData = 0;
while(readData != -1)
readData = readMe.read(buffer);
jEditorPane1.setText(String.valueOf(buffer));
catch(Exception e)
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, e,
"Error!", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
The error is: java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Users\Kaylan\Documents\NetBeansProjects\Mr.Document\dist\Mr.DocumentReadMe.txt (The system cannot find the file specified)
The text file is saved in the projects dist folder. I have tried saving it elsewhere and get the same error with a different pathname.
I can use JFileChooser to get a file and read it into a char array with no problem, why doesnt it work when i specify the path manually in the code?

Answer 1

Well the file clearly isn't there. Maybe it has a .txt.txt extensionthat Windows is kindly hiding from you - check its Properties.
But:
String path = theFile.getCanonicalPath();
FileReader readMe = new FileReader(path);You don't need all that. Just:
FileReader readMe = new FileReader(theFile);And:
char buffer[] = new char[(int)theFile.length()];You don't need a buffer the size of the file, this is bad practice. Use 8192 or whatever.
while(readData != -1)
readData = readMe.read(buffer);
}That doesn't make sense. Read the data into the buffer and repeat until you get EOF? and do nothing with the contents of the buffer? The canonical read loop in Java goes like this:
while ((count = in.read(buffer)) > 0)
  out.write(buffer, 0, count); // or do something else with buffer[0..count-1].
jEditorPane1.setText(String.valueOf(buffer));Bzzt. That won't give you the content of 'buffer'. Use new String(buffer, 0, count) at least.