Java FileReader Class getEncoding() Method with Examples

Last Updated : 02 Feb, 2022

The getEncoding() method of FileReader Class in Java is used to return the name of the current stream’s character encoding. If the stream is utilizing a historical encoding name, it will be returned; otherwise, the canonical encoding name of the stream will be returned.

Syntax:

public String getEncoding()

Returns: This method returns the encoding’s historical name, or null if the stream has been closed.

Example: We generated two file readers, input1 and input2, in the preceding example. The character encoding is not specified in input1. As a result, the default character encoding is returned by the getEncoding() function. The character encoding, UTF8, is specified by input2. As a result, the getEncoding() function returns the character encoding supplied.

Java

// Java Program to demonstrate the working of  
// getEncoding() Method of FileReader Class 
  
import java.io.FileReader; 
import java.nio.charset.Charset; 
  
class GFG { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        try { 
            // Creates a FileReader with the encoding set to 
            // default. 
            FileReader input1 = new FileReader( 
                "C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Desktop\\input.txt"); 
  
            // Creates a FileReader with the specified 
            // encoding. 
            FileReader input2 = new FileReader( 
                "C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Desktop\\input.txt", 
                Charset.forName("UTF8")); 
  
            // The file reader's character encoding is 
            // returned. 
            System.out.println( 
                "Character encoding of input1: "
                + input1.getEncoding()); 
            System.out.println( 
                "Character encoding of input2: "
                + input2.getEncoding()); 
  
            // Closing Reader 
            input1.close(); 
            input2.close(); 
        } 
        catch (Exception e) { 
            e.getStackTrace(); 
        } 
    } 
}

Assume we have a text file named input.txt that contains the following information. This file will be utilized as a source of data in our example application.