Java Reference
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11. FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(“characters.txt”);
12. PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter(fw);
13. out.print(i);
14. out.println(d);
15. out.println(s);
16. out.println(b);
17. out.close();
18. fw.close();
The new FileWriter on line 11 creates a fi le named characters.txt , which is chained
to a PrintWriter on line 12. Line 13 prints i without an ending line feed, so d gets printed
on the same line as i . The StringBuilder s and the boolean b are printed next on their
own lines, and the resulting fi le looks like this:
1010.3333333333333333
hello
true
The int , double , and boolean are converted to characters and output to the fi le. The
value of d prints a long list of 3 s because it is the fraction one third. The print and println
methods cannot be used to control the format of d . If you need control over formatting, use
the format method of PrintWriter , which is discussed next.
The format and printf Methods
The format method of a PrintWriter object writes a formatted string to the stream using
a specifi ed format string and arguments. Along with general knowledge of the PrintWriter
class, the exam objectives specifi cally state that you need to be able to “write code using
PrintWriter.format/printf methods.” In addition, you must be able to “recognize and
use formatting parameters (limited to: %b , %c , %d , %f , %s ) in format strings.” The Print-
Writer class has been a part of the Java language since JDK 1.1, but the format and printf
methods were introduced in Java 5.0.
As a convenience to C programmers familiar with C's printf function, PrintWriter
also contains a printf method. The signatures of the two methods are
public PrintWriter format(String fmt, Object... args)
public PrintWriter printf(String fmt, Object... args)
Aside from their names, there is no difference between the format and printf methods.
Their output and behavior is identical. The return value of both is the PrintWriter object,
which allows for chaining of method calls. The fmt parameter consists of fi xed text and one
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