desmoj.core.report

Class FileOutput

java.lang.Object

desmoj.core.report.FileOutput

Direct Known Subclasses:

TableOutput, XMLOutput

public class FileOutput
extends java.lang.Object

FileOutput is the class all other writer-based Output classes used within the DESMO-j framework are derived from. The basic functionality needed for all FileOutput objects are methods to open and close the stream used for output and set the two necessary types of separators for column output. Two methods for writing Strings into the file are supported. The name is needed for opening a file to identify the output channel in terms of window titles or file names, depending on the type of output the specific subclass relies on. Note that each object of this class supports the creation of several files in a row. You can open and close as many files as needed with one object. Users of this class dont necessarily have to write to real files on disk, see setFileSystemAccess(desmoj.core.report.FileSystemAccess).

Version:

DESMO-J, Ver. 2.5.1c copyright (c) 2015

Author:

Tim Lechler Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Field and Description
static FileSystemAccess	NORMAL_FILE_ACCESS The standard method to write output: Plain files on disk.

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
FileOutput() Constructs a FileOutput object.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	close() Flushes the buffer and closes the file. note that if another file with the same name is opened and written to, it will overwrite the previous file on the disc without notice.
static java.lang.String	getEndOfLine() Returns the currently valid String for separating lines of output.
java.lang.String	getFileName() Returns the current fileName of this FileOutput or null if it has not been opened and named yet.
static java.lang.String	getSeparator() Returns the currently active String for separating individual entries in a line of output.
boolean	isEmpty() Returns a boolean value showing if relevant data has been written to the file.
boolean	isOpen() Returns the current state of the FileOutput.
void	open(java.lang.String name) Opens a new file with the given fileName for writing data to.
static void	setEndOfLine(java.lang.String eolString) Sets the end-of-line separator String to the given parameter value.
static void	setFileSystemAccess(FileSystemAccess fileSystemAccess) Enables the user to globally change the way files are created/opened.
static void	setSeparator(java.lang.String sepString) Sets the entry separator String to the given parameter value.
void	write(java.lang.String s) Writes the given String to the open file.
void	writeln(java.lang.String s) Writes the given String to the open file, adding a line separator to the end of the String written.
void	writeSep(java.lang.String s) Writes the given String to the open file, adding a separator to the end of the String written.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

NORMAL_FILE_ACCESS

public static final FileSystemAccess NORMAL_FILE_ACCESS

The standard method to write output: Plain files on disk.

Constructor Detail

FileOutput

public FileOutput()

Constructs a FileOutput object. A FileOuput object is capable of opening a file using method open(String fileName). Note that if the output stream used cannot be opened, the whole error handling is printed to the system's standard output stream. The 'endOfLine' String is set to the underlying system's String used to separate lines as given by the system property line.separator.

Method Detail

close

public void close()

Flushes the buffer and closes the file. note that if another file with the same name is opened and written to, it will overwrite the previous file on the disc without notice. All users of Output objects have to call close() to properly shut down the ouput stream after the last call to the printing methods. Classes overriding this method should put all necessary actions to properly close their file into the close() method and make a call to super.close() as their last command to finally close buffers and files.

getEndOfLine

public static java.lang.String getEndOfLine()

Returns the currently valid String for separating lines of output. This is a platform dependent String and is set to the underlying system's String by default.

Returns:

String : The String used to separate lines

getFileName

public java.lang.String getFileName()

Returns the current fileName of this FileOutput or null if it has not been opened and named yet.

Returns:

java.lang.String : The name of the file or null if file has not been opened and named yet

getSeparator

public static java.lang.String getSeparator()

Returns the currently active String for separating individual entries in a line of output. This comes in handy, when trying to write files in a certain format i.e. dbf format. Data from files complying to that format can easily be read and imported to a variety of standard statistics packages for further manipulation and analysis.

Returns:

String : The String used to separate entries within a line

isEmpty

public boolean isEmpty()

Returns a boolean value showing if relevant data has been written to the file. If only file headings have been written, this method will return true to indicate that it does not contain information and thus might just as well be deleted. If data has been written to it, this method will return false instead.

Returns:

boolean : Is true if no relevant data but the heading has been written to this file, false otherwise

isOpen

public boolean isOpen()

Returns the current state of the FileOutput. True is returned, if the file has been opened successfully and can be written to. If the file has been closed or has not been opened yet, false is returned.

Returns:

boolean : Is true if the file is currently open, false if not

open

public void open(java.lang.String name)

Opens a new file with the given fileName for writing data to. If no String is given, the default filename "unnamed_DESMOJ_file" is used. Note that opening a file with a name that already exists in the user's target directory will overwrite that existing file without notice! So be careful when choosing file names and make sure to use unique names.

Parameters:

name - java.lang.String : The name of the file to be created

setEndOfLine

public static void setEndOfLine(java.lang.String eolString)

Sets the end-of-line separator String to the given parameter value. The default value is the end-of-line String of the underlying platform. Use this method to create files of specific formats. Data from files complying to that format can easily be read and imported to a variety of standard statistics packages for further manipulation and analysis.

Parameters:

eolString - String : The String for separating lines

setSeparator

public static void setSeparator(java.lang.String sepString)

Sets the entry separator String to the given parameter value. The default value is ';'. This is useful, when trying to write files in a certain format i.e. dbf format. Data from files complying to that format can easily be read and imported to a variety of standard statistics packages for further manipulation and analysis.

Parameters:

sepString - String : The String for separating entries within a line

write

public void write(java.lang.String s)

Writes the given String to the open file. If the given String is empty, the method will simply return without action. Override this method if you want your data to be written with specific tags as used in the HTMLFileOutput class.

Parameters:

s - java.lang.String : The String to write to the file

See Also:

HTMLFileOutput

writeln

public void writeln(java.lang.String s)

Writes the given String to the open file, adding a line separator to the end of the String written. If the string given is null or "" just a new line character will be written to the file. This method simply adds the end-of-line String to the String given and calls the void write(String s) method.

Parameters:

s - java.lang.String : The String to write to the file

writeSep

public void writeSep(java.lang.String s)

Writes the given String to the open file, adding a separator to the end of the String written. If the string given is null or "" just a new line character will be written to the file. This method simply adds the end-of-line String to the String given and calls the void write(String s) method.

Parameters:

s - java.lang.String : The String to write to the file

setFileSystemAccess

public static void setFileSystemAccess(FileSystemAccess fileSystemAccess)

Enables the user to globally change the way files are created/opened. The standard is to create them on disk, but using this method other options, like creating them in-memory, are available for the standard formatters.