File input and sorting averages with movies

Question

So far I have Java code that will:

1. take in two .csv files
2. store each line as a string in a string array
3. split it into a 2D string array where a comma would act as the separator
4. sum the number found in a column with all the other numbers that share the same number in the column next to it, and count how many times it does this
5. sort the array based on whichever has the highest average, and then by most number of occurrences
6. saves it to a file

The code below works, but it is very long, and not very easy to change without breaking it/losing a lot of code. How can I make this code simpler and more modular?

 /**
 * The below program takes in two files, one containing movies and information on them, the other containing a list of
 * user ratings for the movies It then sorts the movies by the average rating for each one, then by number of ratings It
 * will then save it to a file
 * 
 * movies [movie#][movieName][etc...][][][][]... ratings [user][movie#][stars]
 * 
 * unsorted[sumOfStars][#OfRatings] average [averageRating][movie#] sorted [averageRating][#OfRatings][movieName]
 * 
 * @version 1.0 21/11/14
 */
public class movieAverage {
 public static void main(String args[]) {
 FileIO reader = new FileIO();
 String[] rawMovies = reader.load("C://Users/James/Desktop/Movies.csv");
 String[] rawRatings = reader.load("C://Users/James/Desktop/Ratings.csv");
 String delim = ",(?=([^\"]*\"[^\"]*\")*[^\"]*$)";
 int moviesRows = rawMovies.length;
 int ratingRows = rawRatings.length;
 int moviesColumns = rawMovies[0].split(delim).length;
 int ratingsColumns = rawRatings[0].split(delim).length;
 //saving the file to a 2d array
 String[][] movies = new String[moviesRows][moviesColumns];
 String[][] ratings = new String[ratingRows][ratingsColumns];
 for(int i = 0; i < moviesRows; i++) {
 String[] tokens = rawMovies[i].split(delim);
 for(int j = 0; j < moviesColumns; j++) {
 movies[i][j] = tokens[j];
 }
 }
 for(int i = 0; i < ratingRows; i++) {
 String[] tokens = rawRatings[i].split(",");
 for(int j = 0; j < ratingsColumns; j++) {
 ratings[i][j] = tokens[j];
 }
 }
 //averaging the ratings
 int[][] unsorted = new int[moviesRows][2]; // sum, size(amount of ratings)
 // for(int i = 0; i < moviesRows; i++) {
 // for(int j = 0; j < unsorted[0].length; j++) {
 // unsorted[i][j] = 0;
 // }
 // }
 int x = 0;
 String s = "";
 for(int i = 0; i < ratings.length; i++) {
 x = Integer.parseInt(ratings[i][1]) - 1;
 s = ratings[i][2];
 String[] tok = s.split("[\\r\\n]+");
 unsorted[x][0] += Integer.parseInt(tok[0]);
 unsorted[x][1]++;
 }
 double[][] average = new double[unsorted.length][2]; // average, film#
 for(int i = 0; i < unsorted.length; i++) {
 if(unsorted[i][1] == 0) average[i][0] = 0.0;
 else average[i][0] = (double)(unsorted[i][0]) / (unsorted[i][1]);
 average[i][1] = i;
 }
 // selection sort to sort by averages
 double TEMP = 0.0;
 for(int i = 0; i < average.length - 1; i++) {
 int max = i;
 for(int j = i + 1; j < average.length; j++) {
 if(average[j][0] > average[max][0]) max = j;
 }
 TEMP = average[i][0];
 average[i][0] = average[max][0];
 average[max][0] = TEMP;
 TEMP = average[i][1];
 average[i][1] = average[max][1];
 average[max][1] = TEMP;
 }
 // bubble sort to sort by number of ratings with averages still in order
 for(int i = average.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
 for(int j = 0; j <= i - 1; j++) {
 if(average[j][0] == average[j + 1][0] && unsorted[(int)average[j][1]][1] < unsorted[(int)average[j + 1][1]][1]) {
 TEMP = average[j][1];
 average[j][1] = average[j + 1][1];
 average[j + 1][1] = TEMP;
 }
 }
 }
 String[][] sorted = new String[moviesRows][3];
 for(int i = 0; i < moviesRows; i++) {
 sorted[i][0] = String.valueOf(average[i][0]); // average rating
 sorted[i][1] = String.valueOf(unsorted[(int)average[i][1]][1]); // number of ratings
 sorted[i][2] = movies[(int)average[i][1]][1]; // movie name
 }
 try {
 reader.save("C://Users/James/Desktop/sortedMovies.csv", sorted);
 System.out.println("SAVED");
 } catch(Exception e) {
 System.out.println(e.getClass());
 }
 }
}

And the fileIO class is here

import java.io.*;
public class FileIO {
 public String[] load(String file) {
 File aFile = new File(file);
 StringBuffer contents = new StringBuffer();
 BufferedReader input = null;
 try {
 input = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(aFile));
 String line = null;
 while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) {
 contents.append(line);
 contents.append(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
 }
 } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
 System.out
 .println("Can't find the file - are you sure the file is in this location: "
 + file);
 ex.printStackTrace();
 } catch (IOException ex) {
 System.out.println("Input output exception while processing file");
 ex.printStackTrace();
 } finally {
 try {
 if (input != null) {
 input.close();
 }
 } catch (IOException ex) {
 System.out
 .println("Input output exception while processing file");
 ex.printStackTrace();
 }
 }
 String[] array = contents.toString().split("\n");
 return array;
 }
 public void save(String file, String[] array) throws FileNotFoundException,
 IOException {
 File aFile = new File(file);
 Writer output = null;
 try {
 output = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(aFile));
 for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
 output.write(array[i]);
 output.write(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
 }
 } finally {
 if (output != null)
 output.close();
 }
 }
 public void save(String file, String[][] array)
 throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
 File aFile = new File(file);
 Writer output = null;
 try {
 output = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(aFile));
 for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
 for (int j = 0; j < array[0].length - 1; j++) {
 output.write(array[i][j] + ",");
 }
 output.write(array[i][array[0].length - 1]);
 output.write(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
 }
 } finally {
 if (output != null)
 output.close();
 }
 }
}

Answer 1

There are a lot of things to improve here. I will focus on the FileIO class.

The load method

The load method returns String[]. I suggest to change that to List<String>. Arrays are troublesome in many ways. Unless you have a specific need for arrays, it's better to use lists.

---

Unless you really need a thread-safe solution (rare), StringBuilder is recommended instead of StringBuffer.

---

I would rename the String file parameter to path. That's a bit more clear, and then you can use the more natural File file instead of File aFile.

---

Reading the file line by line, at each step appending to a buffer and appending System.getProperty("line.separator"), and then splitting the whole thing by \n is wasteful and not natural. This is where using a List<String> helps you as I suggested in the first step: you can just append to it line by line, and you'll have something ready to use without splitting.

Applying the suggestions above, the load method becomes a bit simpler:

public List<String> load(String path) {
 File file = new File(path);
 List<String> lines = new ArrayList<>();
 BufferedReader input = null;
 try {
 input = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
 String line;
 while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) {
 lines.add(line);
 }
 } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
 System.out.println("Can't find the file - are you sure the file is in this location: " + path);
 ex.printStackTrace();
 } catch (IOException ex) {
 System.out.println("Input output exception while processing file");
 ex.printStackTrace();
 } finally {
 try {
 if (input != null) {
 input.close();
 }
 } catch (IOException ex) {
 System.out.println("Input output exception while processing file");
 ex.printStackTrace();
 }
 }
 return lines;
}

The save method

I recommend the following changes:

• Use List<String> instead of array as in load
• Rename file and aFile as in load
• Use the modern for-each style iteration instead of for (;;)
• Cache the value of System.getProperty("line.separator") before the for loop, to avoid unnecessary multiple lookups
• Use braces in if (output != null) output.close(); like you did everywhere else