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Java RandomAccessFile seek() Method with Example

RandomAccessFile Class seek() method: Here, we are going to learn about the seek() method of RandomAccessFile Class with its syntax and example.
Submitted by Preeti Jain, on March 23, 2020

RandomAccessFile Class seek() method

• seek() method is available in java.io package.
• seek() method is used to sets the file pointer position calculated from the starting of this file at which the next read or write operation occurs and the position might be set beyond the file.
• seek() method is a non-static method, it is accessible with the class object only and if we try to access the method with the class name then we will get an error.
• seek() method may throw an exception at the time of seeking file pointer.
  IOException: This exception may throw an exception while performing input/output operation.

Syntax:

    public void seek(long pos);

Parameter(s):

• long pos – represents the offset location at which to set file pointer, measured in bytes from the beginning of the file.

Return value:

The return type of this method is void, it returns nothing.

Example:

// Java program to demonstrate the example 
// of void seek(long pos) method of
// RandomAccessFile

import java.io.*;

class RAFSeek {
 public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
  // Instantiate a random access file
  // object with file name and permissions
  RandomAccessFile ra_f = new RandomAccessFile("e:/includehelp.txt", "rw");

  // By using writeUTF() method is to 
  // write data to the file
  ra_f.writeUTF("Welcome in Java World!!!");

  // by using seek() method is to 
  // set the current file indicator
  // from where read/write could 
  // start i.e. we set here 0 so reading
  // will be done from 0 till EOF
  ra_f.seek(0);

  // By using readUTF() method is to 
  // read a data in a string from
  // this file

  //String str = ra_f.readUTF();
  System.out.println("ra_f.readUTF(): " + ra_f.readUTF());

  // By using close() method isto
  // close this stream ran_f
  ra_f.close();
 }
}

Output

ra_f.readUTF(): Welcome in Java World!!!