Seperate elements

Question

I have a file containing chemical compounds. E.G
Ag Silver
Al Aluminium
Au Gold
C Carbon
Ca Calcium
Cl Chlorine
Cu Copper
Co Cobalt
I want to write a program which will seperate user input into individual chemical element, which can then in turn be compared to chemical data in the file.
User input puts an compound they want to test, then my program searches the file for this compound. If found,it should print it out the elements in that compound including it's english name.
I.E
Cl contains the elements "c" and "l" name= Chlorine
I am able to read the file but do nothing else.
import java.io.*;
public class FileIODemo2
public static void main(String[]args)
String line; // will be used to read line at a time
try
File inFile = new File("Chemical Data.dat"); //create file object linked to actual file
FileReader reader = new FileReader(inFile); //create input stream
BufferedReader buff = new BufferedReader(reader);
line = buff.readLine();     //read 1st line
     while(line!=null);                    //null returned when no more to be read
System.out.println(line);
line = buff.readLine(); //get next
catch(IOException e)
System.out.println("Error has occured:" +e);
I'm quite new to java programming, help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Use property-files, you will have to adjust your file a little for this.
Instead of:
Ag Silver
Al Aluminium
it should be:
Ag=Silver
Al=Aluminium
Next you read this file into a Properties-object:Properties props = new Properties ();
props.load (new FileInputStream ("Chemical Data.dat"));Then you can use this to retrieve items like this:String element = props.getProperty("Al");
//==> element = Aluminiumgreetz,
Stijn