Reading File into Array - Java

Question

I am practicing java, and looking at exercises online:

However, I am stuck at the point in which I need to

Read the file again, and initialise the elements of the array

Task

• Write class Members representing a list of members as an array
• Constructor should take String argument (file name)
• Use scanner to read lines and create array big enough to hold the file
• Read the file again and initialise elements of the array

Current Code

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

class Members {

    MemberElement[] members;

    public Members(String fileName) throws IOException {
        File myFile = new File(fileName);
        Scanner scan = new Scanner(myFile);

        int numOfLines = 0;
        while(scan.hasNextLine()) {
            scan.nextLine();
            numOfLines++;
        }
        scan.close();
        scan = new Scanner(myFile);

        members = new MemberElement[numOfLines];   
}

MemberElement Class:

class MemberElement {

    private String name;
    private int number;
    private int birthDate;

    public MemberElement(String name, int number, int birthDate) {
        this.name = name;
        this.number = number;
        this.birthDate = birthDate;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return this.name;
    }

    public int getNumber() {
        return this.number;
    }

    public int getBirth() {
        return this.birthDate;
    }

    public String toString() {
        return getName() + " " + getNumber() + " " + getBirth(); 
    }
}

Contents Of Text File:

Wendy Miller 7654 17-2-1960
Dolly Sheep 4129 15-5-1954
Dolly Sheep 5132 21-12-1981
Irma Retired Programmer 345 15-11-1946

Answer 1

It's basically the same like counting lines:

int numOfLines = 0;
while(scan.hasNextLine()) {
    scan.nextLine();
    numOfLines++;
}

However, we now need to actually access that next line. A quick look into the Scanner docs tells me, that nextLine returns exactly what we want.

int numOfLine = 0;
while(scan.hasNextLine()) {
    String line = scan.nextLine();
    members[numOfLine] = new MemberElement(line, numOfLine, /* birthDate */);
    numOfLine++;
}

Answer 2

It says initialise elements of the array. So that would be

int index = 0;
while (scan.hasNextLine()) {
    // I assume MemberElement c-tor uses the read data somehow
    // otherwise what's the point in reading the file
    members[index++] = new MemberElement(scan.nextLine());
}

scan.close();

Although the task itself does seem to be somewhat strange.