Read Ascii file package com.ack.j2se.io; import java.io.FileReader; import java.io.IOException; public class ReadAsciiFile { public static void main( String[] args ) { String myFile = "readme.txt"; StringBuffer buf = null; FileReader fr = null; try { fr = new FileReader( myFile ); int theChar; buf = new StringBuffer(); while( ( ( theChar = fr.read() ) != -1 ) ) { buf.append( (char) theChar ); } } catch( IOException ioe ) { ioe.printStackTrace(); } finally { if( fr != null ) { try { fr.close(); } catch( IOException ioe ) { } } } if( buf != null ) System.out.println( "file contents: " + buf ); } }