java 6 IO - wrapped streams closing [closed]

Answer 1

The second pattern (the check for null one) could be amended as :

public static void readSO2(String filename) throws IOException {
    String charsetName = "UTF-8";
    InputStream file = null;
    InputStreamReader reader = null;
    BufferedReader buffer = null;
    try {
        file = new FileInputStream(filename);
        reader = new InputStreamReader(file, charsetName);
        buffer = new BufferedReader(reader);
        buffer.readLine();
    } finally {
        try {
            if (buffer != null) buffer.close();
            else if (reader != null) reader.close();
            else if (file != null) file.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // report at least
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

• Pros : one close, one possible exception, no flush needed (for output streams)
• Cons : still inelegant : null dance, one must be careful in the order of the ifs, no way to generalize

So question still stands.