Am I overcomplicating things?

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My question is this. Am I overcomplicating things?I read some simpler solutions and I can adapt. I have tried this code on my computer and it works as the tasks say but I noticed that I tend to overcomplicate the code.

CrUD for a table inside a file.
Read a file name for CrUD operations from the console.

The program is started with the following arguments:
-c productName price quantity

Argument values:
where id is 8 characters.
productName is 30 characters.
price is 8 characters.
quantity is 4 characters.
-c adds the product with the specified parameters to the end of the file, and generates an id by incrementing the maximum id found in the file.

The file data is stored in the following order (without separating spaces):
id productName price quantity

Each data field is padded with spaces up to its length.

Before adding a new line, re-write all of its contents to the file.

Example:
19847 Swim trunks, blue 159.00 12 198479 Swim trunks, black with printe173.00 17 19847983Snowboard jacket with reflecti10173.991234

Requirements:

The program should read a file name for CrUD operations from the console.
The Solution class should not use static variables.
When you run the program without arguments, the product list must remain unchanged.
When the program is run with the arguments "-c productName price quantity", a new line with the corresponding product should be added to the end of the file.
The product must have the next id after the maximum id found in the file.
The format of the new product line must precisely match that format specified in the task.
The file streams must be closed.

package com.codegym.task.task18.task1827; /* Prices */ import java.io.*; import java.util.ArrayList; public class Solution { public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { if(args.length==0||!args[0].equalsIgnoreCase("-c")){ return; } BufferedReader reader=new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); String fileName= reader.readLine(); reader.close(); BufferedReader fileReader= new BufferedReader(new FileReader("C:\\Users\\Andreea\\IdeaProjects\\1.txt")); ArrayList<String> list=new ArrayList<>(); if (args[0].equalsIgnoreCase("-c")){ String data=""; while((data=fileReader.readLine())!=null){ list.add(data); } fileReader.close(); BufferedWriter fileWriter= new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("C:\\Users\\Andreea\\IdeaProjects\\1.txt")); for(String s:list) { fileWriter.write(s + "\n"); } String finalLine=list.get(list.size()-1); String[] indexS=finalLine.split(""); int index=Integer.parseInt(indexS[0])+1; String ceva=Integer.toString(index); char[] idB=ceva.toCharArray(); char[] id=new char[8]; String idF=""; String productNameF=""; String priceF=""; String quantityF=""; for(int i=0;i<id.length;i++){ try{ id[i]=idB[i]; } catch (Exception e){ id[i]=' '; } } for(char c:id){ idF+=c; } char[] productNameB=args[1].toCharArray(); char[] productName=new char[30]; for(int i=0;i<productName.length;i++){ try{ productName[i]=productNameB[i]; } catch (Exception e){ productName[i]=' '; } } for(char c:productName){ productNameF+=c; } char[] priceB=args[2].toCharArray(); char[] price=new char[8]; for(int i=0;i<price.length;i++){ try{ price[i]=priceB[i]; } catch (Exception e){ price[i]=' '; } } for(char c:price){ priceF+=c; } char[] quantityB=args[3].toCharArray(); char[] quantity=new char[4]; for(int i=0;i<quantity.length;i++){ try{ quantity[i]=quantityB[i]; } catch (Exception e){ quantity[i]=' '; } } for(char c:quantity){ quantityF+=c; } fileWriter.write(idF+productNameF+priceF+quantityF); fileWriter.close(); } } }

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catalin1989

Level 37 , Romania

15 November 2023, 20:54

Thanx guys for the feedback. With String.format it was an easy task. I learnt something here :).

Thomas

Level 41 , Bayreuth, Germany

13 November 2023, 22:57

I assume the hardcoded path is just for testing? Your code has a problem with getting the last index correctly (you use split(" ") for that but the example shows there not necessarily has to be a space between id and product name). The id is just the first 8 characters. The rest of the code is hard to read. The variable names are mainly meaningless, a lot of the code is repetitive. Better write methods for eg. adding whitespace to strings (or use existing functionality) Knowingly running into IndexOutOfBoundsExceptions isn't good style either. some ideas how you could do this without...

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    System.out.println("|" + fillWithWhitespace("test", 10) + "|");
    System.out.println("|" + fillWithWSCharArray("test", 10) + "|");
    // or using String.format
    System.out.format("|%-10s|", "test");
}

private static String fillWithWhitespace(String s, int length) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(s);
    while (sb.length() < length) {
        sb.append(" ");
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

private static String fillWithWSCharArray(String s, int length) {
    char[] chars = new char[length];
    Arrays.fill(chars, ' ');
    System.arraycopy(s.toCharArray(), 0, chars, 0, s.length());
    return new String(chars);
}

Checking if there is valid data in the args array is good as well as reading all lines into an array. For writing... what about adding the created product String to the array and then just loop over that one and write everything in one batch?

catalin1989

Level 37 , Romania

14 November 2023, 11:19

Thanx for the feedback.

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

14 November 2023, 14:28

Everything Thomas said is spot on, as usual. I would also recommend looking at the String.format() method. This method makes the task trivial. Take this example:

String insert = "insert";
System.out.println(String.format("EXAMPLE%sEXAMPLE", insert));
System.out.println(String.format("EXAMPLE%10sEXAMPLE", insert));
System.out.println(String.format("EXAMPLE%-10sEXAMPLE", insert));

The %s in the first output line is replaced by the word insert. The second output line I added a 10 in the middle of the %s, this tells the format() method that the inserted text needs to be 10 characters long and it will add spaces before the text if it is less than 10 characters long, as seen in the second output. If you use a negative number instead of a positive number then the spaces will be added after the text, as seen in the third output (and *hint* as is needed in this task).

catalin1989

Level 37 , Romania

15 November 2023, 20:23

Thanx for the feedback. I need to use more often String.format.