File Scanner: Unreported exception FileNotFoundException; must be caught or declared to be thrown

K. Kretz :

I have tried everything I can find on the internet, and nothing seems to fix this. I am begging for help, tell me what I am doing wrong. I am brand new to Java. Thanks!

import java.util.Scanner;

class File_Scanner {    
    public static void read() {
        File credentials_file = new File("credentials.txt");
        Scanner file_reader = new Scanner(credentials_file);
        String[] users = new String[6];
        int index_counter = 0;

        try {
            while (file_reader.hasNextLine()) {
                users[index_counter] = file_reader.nextLine();
            }
            file_reader.close();

        } catch (Exception e) {
          System.out.println(e.getClass());
        }
    }
}

This is showing the following error

Unreported exception FileNotFoundException; must be caught or declared to be thrown

Reaz Murshed :

I would like to recommend to surround the whole read function with a try/catch block like the following.

import java.util.Scanner;

class File_Scanner{    
    public static void read(){
        try {
            File credentials_file = new File("credentials.txt");
            Scanner file_reader = new Scanner(credentials_file);
            String[] users = new String[6];
            int index_counter = 0;

            while (file_reader.hasNextLine()) {
                users[index_counter] = file_reader.nextLine();
            }

            file_reader.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
          System.out.println(e.getClass());
        }
    }
}

The idea of try/catch is to avoid any error that might occur while running your program. In your case, Scanner file_reader = new Scanner(credentials_file); can throw an error if the credentials_file is not found or deleted. Hence you need to cover this around a try block which will give you an exception which can be handled to show proper response message in the catch block.

Hope that helps!