IOExceptions

Most IO methods throw an IOException when an error is encountered. A method that uses one of these IO methods must either (1) include throws IOException in its header, or (2) perform its IO in a try{} block and then catch IOExceptions. Here is the example program modified to catch exceptions:

import java.io.*;

class WriteTextFile2
{

  public static void main ( String[] args ) 
  {
    String fileName = "reaper.txt" ;

    try
    {  
      // append characters to the file
      FileWriter writer = new FileWriter( fileName, true );

      writer.write( "Alone she cuts and binds the grain,\n"  );  
      writer.write( "And sings a melancholy strain;\n"  );  
      writer.write( "O listen! for the Vale profound\n" );  
      writer.write( "Is overflowing with the sound.\n\n"  );  

      writer.close();
    }
    catch ( IOException iox )
    {
      System.out.println("Problem writing " + fileName );
    }
  }
}

The constructor, the write() method, and the close() method can throw an IOException. All are caught by the catch block. The program opens the file reaper.txt for appending. Run it and see what it does.