Access variable in try block

I want to remove the throws FileNotFoundException from the method head and put it into it.

public static String[] read(String file) throws FileNotFoundException {

But then I can’t access in (the scanner) anymore! How to handle that?

public static String[] read(String file) {
    try {
        Scanner in = new Scanner(new FileReader(file));
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
    }
    // ...
    in.close();
    // ...
}

Answer

The variable in is out of scope outside the try block. You can either do this:

public static String[] read(String file) {
    Scanner in = null;
    try {
        in = new Scanner(new FileReader(file));
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
    }
    finally() {
        in.close();
    }
    // ...
}

Or better yet, try with resources

public static String[] read(String file) {
    try (Scanner in = new Scanner(new FileReader(file))){
        String line = in.nextLine();
        // whatever comes next
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
    }
        
    // right here, the scanner object will be already closed
    return ...;
}