How do I close a file after catching an IOException in java?

Question

All,

I am trying to ensure that a file I have open with BufferedReader is closed when I catch an IOException, but it appears as if my BufferedReader object is out o

Answer 1

Move the declaration out of the try block:

public static ArrayList readFiletoArrayList(String fileName, ArrayList fileArrayList)
{
    fileArrayList.removeAll(fileArrayList);

    BufferedReader fileIn = null;
    try {
        //open the file for reading
        fileIn = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));

        // add line by line to array list, until end of file is reached
        // when buffered reader returns null (todo). 
        while(true){
                fileArrayList.add(fileIn.readLine());
            }
    }catch(IOException e){
        fileArrayList.removeAll(fileArrayList);
        fileIn.close(); 
        return fileArrayList; //returned empty. Dealt with in calling code. 
    }
}

But, you'll still need to be careful that fileIn was actually initialized before trying to close it:

if (fileIn != null)
    fileIn.close();