/*
 * NIST
 * Utils.java Oct 23, 2007
 *
 * This code was produced by the National Institute of Standards and
 * Technology (NIST). See the "nist.disclaimer" file given in the distribution
 * for information on the use and redistribution of this software.
 */

package gov.nist.hl7.ws.client.messagevalidation;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * @author Roch Bertucat (NIST)
 *
 */
public final class Utils {

    private Utils() {

    }

    /**
     * Returns the String representation of a file
     * @param aFile a File
     * @return its string representation
     */
    public static String getContents(File aFile) {
        //...checks on aFile are elided
        StringBuffer contents = new StringBuffer();

        //declared here only to make visible to finally clause
        BufferedReader input = null;
        try {
            //use buffering, reading one line at a time
            //FileReader always assumes default encoding is OK!
            input = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(aFile));
            String line = null;
            //not declared within while loop
            /*
             * readLine is a bit quirky :
             * it returns the content of a line MINUS the newline.
             * it returns null only for the END of the stream.
             * it returns an empty String if two newlines appear in a row.
             */
            while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) {
                contents.append(line);
                contents.append(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
            }
        } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                if (input != null) {
                    //flush and close both "input" and its underlying FileReader
                    input.close();
                }
            } catch (IOException ex) {
                ex.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        return contents.toString();
    }
}