How can I read a large text file line by line using Java?

Question

I need to read a large text file of around 5-6 GB line by line using Java.

How can I do this quickly?

Answer 1

By using the org.apache.commons.io package, it gave more performance, especially in legacy code which uses Java 6 and below.

Java 7 has a better API with fewer exceptions handling and more useful methods:

LineIterator lineIterator = null;
try {
    lineIterator = FileUtils.lineIterator(new File("/home/username/m.log"), "windows-1256"); // The second parameter is optionnal
    while (lineIterator.hasNext()) {
        String currentLine = lineIterator.next();
        // Some operation
    }
}
finally {
    LineIterator.closeQuietly(lineIterator);
}

Maven

    commons-io
    commons-io
    2.6