Kotlin read file tutorial

last modified January 29, 2024

This article shows how to read a file in Kotlin. We show several ways of reading a file in Kotlin.

In this article we use the File methods to read files.

The tutorial presents five examples that read a file in Kotlin.

thermopylae.txt

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece.

In the examples, we use this text file.

Kotlin read file with File.readLines

File.readLines reads the file content as a list of lines. It should not be used for large files.

readfile.kt

package com.zetcode

import java.io.File

fun main() {

val fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt"

val lines: List<String> = File(fileName).readLines()

lines.forEach { line -> println(line) }

}

The example reads a file with File.readLines.

Kotlin read file with File.useLines

File.useLines reads all data as a list of lines and provides it to the callback. It closes the reader in the end.

readfile2.kt

package com.zetcode

import java.io.File

fun main() {

val fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt"

val myList = mutableListOf<String>()

File(fileName).useLines { lines -> myList.addAll(lines) }

myList.forEachIndexed { i, line -> println("${i}: " + line) }

}

The example reads a file and prints it to the console. We add line numbers to the output.

val myList = mutableListOf<String>()

A mutable list is created.

File(fileName).useLines { lines -> myList.addAll(lines) }

With File.useLines we copy the list of the lines into the above created mutable list.

myList.forEachIndexed { i, line -> println("${i}: " + line) }

With forEachIndexed we add a line number to each line.

Kotlin read file with File.readText

File.readText gets the entire content of this file as a String. It is not recommended to use this method on huge files.

readfile3.kt

package com.zetcode

import java.io.File

fun main() {

val fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt"

val content = File(fileName).readText()

println(content)

}

In the example, we read the whole file into a string and print it to the console.

Kotlin read file with InputStream

InputStream is an input stream of bytes.

readfile4.kt

package com.zetcode

import java.io.File import java.io.InputStream import java.nio.charset.Charset

fun main() {

val fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt"
val myFile = File(fileName)

var ins: InputStream = myFile.inputStream()

var content = ins.readBytes().toString(Charset.defaultCharset())
println(content)

}

The example creates an InputStream from a File and reads bytes from it. The bytes are transformed into text.

var ins: InputStream = myFile.inputStream()

An InputStream is created from a File with inputStream.

var content = ins.readBytes().toString(Charset.defaultCharset())

We read bytes from the InputStream with readBytes and transform the bytes into text with toString.

Kotlin read file with readBytes

The readBytes reads the entire content of a file as a byte array. It is not recommended on huge files.

readfile5.kt

package com.zetcode

import java.io.File

fun main() {

val fileName = "src/resources/thermopylae.txt"
val file = File(fileName)

var bytes: ByteArray = file.readBytes()
    
bytes.forEachIndexed { i, byte -> (
                        
    
    if (i == 0) {
                
        print("${byte} ")
    } else if (i % 10 == 0) {
        
        print("${byte} \n")
    } else {
            
        print("${byte} ")
    })
}    

}

The example reads a text file into a byte array. It prints the file as numbers to the console.

Source

Kotlin reference documentation

In this article we have shown how to read file in Kotlin.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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