Workbook 3a — Exercise

Bedtime Stories

Read a text file line by line and print it back with line numbers | Workbook p.15-16

The Exercise

Create a Java app called bedtime-stories. In the provided DataFiles.zip you'll find three story files: goldilocks.txt, hansel_and_gretel.txt, and mary_had_a_little_lamb.txt. Place them in your project folder.

Ask the user which filename to read. Open the file with a BufferedReader, walk through it line by line, and print each line to the console — but add a line number before every line so the output looks like a numbered list.

Wrap the file work in a try/catch so a missing file gives a clean error message instead of a crash.

Example Run

Run 1 — Reading goldilocks.txt

Which story would you like to read? goldilocks.txt

1. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
2.
3. Once upon a time a girl named Goldilocks lived in
4. a house at the edge of the woods...
5.
6. One morning she went for a walk and came upon
7. a tiny cottage...

Run 2 — File not found

Which story would you like to read? cinderella.txt

Could not open that file. Check the name and try again.

Concepts You'll Use

Flow

Prompt for filename

→

Open FileReader + BufferedReader

→

Start line counter

→

Loop readLine() until null

→

Print "N. <line>"

→

Close the reader

Workbook 3a, p.15-16 — Exercise: Bedtime Stories