New JDK 11 Files Methods for Reading/Writing Strings From/To Files

My previous post focused on the Files.isSameContent() method that is likely to be added to JDK 11. JDK-8201276 ["(fs) Add methods to Files for reading/writing a string from/to a file"] mentions this new method and also highlights the methods that are the subjects of this post:

• readString(Path)
• readString(Path, Charset)
• writeString(Path, CharSequence, OpenOption...)
• writeString(Path, CharSequence, Charset, OpenOption...)

Joe Wang recently posted the message "RFR (JDK11/NIO) 8201276: (fs) Add methods to Files for reading/writing a string from/to a file" on the core-libs-dev mailing list. In this message, Wang provided links to the related bug (JDK-8201276), to the proposed specification (API) differences, and to the proposed code changes.

This is another case where a proposed change leads to some interesting discussion. The thread started with this message includes discussion regarding whether or not to include operating-system specific line separators Files.readString in methods implementations, discussion of alternatives of the readString methods such as simple Files.lines().collect(Collectors.joining("\n")), explanation of how raw string literals handle line separators, a described example of a common use case for these methods, and use of File.deleteOnExit() with unit tests.

JDK-8201276 shows that the proposed methods to implement "common operations" for "reading the content of a file into a string and writing a string text to a file" are currently planned for JDK 11.