question: private String readColumnText ( BinaryFile inputFile ) throws FormatException { StringBuffer buildretval = new StringBuffer ( ) ; boolean skipnext = false ; char tmp ; try { while ( ( tmp = inputFile . readChar ( ) ) != ',' ) { if ( ( tmp == ':' ) && ! skipnext ) { return null ; } if ( tmp == '\\' ) { skipnext = true ; } else { skipnext = false ; buildretval . append ( tmp ) ; } } } catch ( EOFException e ) { } return buildretval . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Reads a string until the field separator is detected, the column record separator is detected, or and end-of-file is hit.