Saving Flight Data to File: A Method for Storing Flight Information in Java

[JaysFan31]

I need to write a method called save that takes a String as a parameter, and returns a boolean value. The parameter represents a filename, and the method should save the contents of one of my classes Flight.java to a file with that filename. I need to include all of the contents created in Flight.java, including the origin and destination airports, as well as an entire list of passengers. I need to able to restore the Flight object and all of its data from the file. Thus, I need to ensure that all of the data gets saved to the file. The method should return true if it is able to save the flight, or false otherwise.

Here's my code:

public boolean save(String fileName) throws IOException
  {    
    FileWriter fw = new FileWriter (fileName,true);
    BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter (fw);
    PrintWriter outFile = new PrintWriter (bw);    
    outFile.println(FlightNumber);
    outFile.println(OriginalAirport);
    outFile.println(DestinationAirport);
    for (int i = 0; i < numberOfPassengers; i++)
      outFile.println(passengers[i].toString() + "\n");
    outFile.close();    
    return true;    
  }

It compiles and obviously in the main method, it prints true, but I don't know if it actually creates a file.
I'm new to this file material and I'm just not sure if this works or not or even if I'm on the right track.

Thanks.
Michael

 

[chroot]

Well, you should be able to look at your filesystem and see if it created the file! It looks like you're on the right track.

However, I should mention that Java includes a "serialization" mechanism that can automatically save and restore objects to files without any effort from you. You should consider using serialization, unless you have some specific reason it cannot be used.

- Warren

 

[ravenprp]

Hello Michael,

Thank you for sharing your code and explaining your task. From what I can see, your code looks like it should work for saving the flight data to a file. However, there are a few things to consider and potentially improve upon.

Firstly, it is good practice to handle any potential errors that may occur while writing to a file. In your code, you are using a FileWriter, BufferedWriter, and PrintWriter which can all throw IOExceptions. It would be a good idea to wrap your code in a try-catch block to handle these exceptions and provide feedback to the user in case of an error.

Secondly, it is important to note that your current code will append the flight data to an existing file if one with the same name already exists. If you want to create a new file each time the save method is called, you can use the constructor FileWriter(fileName) instead of FileWriter(fileName, true).

Lastly, to ensure that your data is saved correctly, you could consider adding a check to see if the file was successfully created. This can be done by checking the return value of the FileWriter constructor or by using the method File.exists().

Overall, it seems like you are on the right track and your code should work for saving the flight data to a file. I hope this helps and good luck with your project!