title: How to read data from a text file into arrays in Java
body: <p>I am having trouble with a programming assignment. I need to read data from a txt file and store it in parallel arrays. The txt file contents are formatted like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Line1: Stringwith466numbers
  Line2: String with a few words
  Line3(int): 4
  Line4: Stringwith4643numbers
  Line5: String with another few words
  Line6(int): 9
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Note: The "Line1: ", "Line2: ", etc is just for display purposes and isn't actually in the txt file.</p>
  
  <p>As you can see it goes in a pattern of threes. Each entry to the txt file is three lines, two strings and one int. </p>
  
  <p>I would like to read the first line into an array, the second into another, and the third into an int array. Then the fourth line would be added to the first array, the 5th line to the second array and the 6th line into the third array. </p>
  
  <p>I have tried to write the code for this but can't get it working: </p>
  
  <pre><code>//Create Parallel Arrays
  String[] moduleCodes = new String[3];
  String[] moduleNames = new String[3];
  int[] numberOfStudents = new int[3];
  
  String fileName = "myfile.txt";
  
  
  readFileContent(fileName, moduleCodes, moduleNames, numberOfStudents);
  
  private static void readFileContent(String fileName, String[] moduleCodes, String[] moduleNames, int[] numberOfStudents) throws FileNotFoundException {
  
          // Create File Object 
          File file = new File(fileName);
  
          if (file.exists())
          {
  
              Scanner scan = new Scanner(file);
              int counter = 0;
  
              while(scan.hasNext())
              {
  
  
                  String code = scan.next();
                  String moduleName = scan.next();
                  int totalPurchase = scan.nextInt();
  
                  moduleCodes[counter] = code;
                  moduleNames[counter] = moduleName;
                  numberOfStudents[counter] = totalPurchase;
  
                  counter++; 
  
  
              }
  
          }
  
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The above code doesn't work properly. When I try to print out an element of the array. it returns null for the string arrays and 0 for the int arrays suggesting that the code to read the data in isn't working. </p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions or guidance much appreciated as it's getting frustrating at this point.</p>