Read a file separated by tab and put the words in an ArrayList

Alright, you need to do the recipe shown below:

1. Create a BufferedReader
2. Create an ArrayList<String>
3. Start reading data into a String variable named lineJustFetched.
4. Split the String by calling lineJustFetched.split("\t");
5. Iterate over the String[] produced. Check if the token you want to enter into the ArrayList is not ""
6. If not, add the word to the ArrayList

You specify that you need to split based on \t values so white spaces won't be an issue.

SSCCE

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;

public class WordsInArray {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try{
            BufferedReader buf = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("/home/little/Downloads/test"));
            ArrayList<String> words = new ArrayList<>();
            String lineJustFetched = null;
            String[] wordsArray;

            while(true){
                lineJustFetched = buf.readLine();
                if(lineJustFetched == null){  
                    break; 
                }else{
                    wordsArray = lineJustFetched.split("\t");
                    for(String each : wordsArray){
                        if(!"".equals(each)){
                            words.add(each);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            for(String each : words){
                System.out.println(each);
            }

            buf.close();

        }catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}    

Output

John
likes to play tennis
Sherlock
likes to solve crime

For others still stumbling upon this.

Using Stream API (Java 8), this can be done as

This shows

• Filter method to filter the first header element from the list
• map method to map each element in stream to another element for new stream.

package com.bhavya.stackoverflow.examples.q19575308;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.function.Predicate;

/**
 * Java 8 Stream API to handle file reading.
 *
 * @author bhavya.work
 */
public class StreamTests {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      InputStream fileInputStream;
      BufferedReader bufferedReader;
      final String filepathInSamePackage = "textfile.txt";
      //filter predicate
      Predicate<String> filterFirstLine =
          line -> !(
              "Name".equals(line.split("\t", -1)[0])
                  && "Hobby".equals(line.split("\t", -1)[1])
          );

      //Implementation 1 returns Arrays as asked.

      System.out.println("==ArrayList==");
      fileInputStream = StreamTests.class.getResourceAsStream(filepathInSamePackage);
      bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fileInputStream));

      bufferedReader
          .lines()
          .filter(filterFirstLine)
          .map(s -> {
            String[] splitStrings = s.split("\t", -1);
            return Arrays.asList(splitStrings);
          }).forEach(System.out::println);

      //Implementation 2 returns HashMap as another example

      fileInputStream = StreamTests.class.getResourceAsStream(filepathInSamePackage);    
      bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(fileInputStream));
      System.out.println("\n==HashMap==");

      bufferedReader
          .lines()
          .filter(filterFirstLine)
          .map(s -> {
            String[] splitStrings = s.split("\t", -1);
            HashMap<String, String> stringStringMap = new HashMap<>();
            stringStringMap.put(splitStrings[0], splitStrings[1]);
            return stringStringMap;
          }).forEach(System.out::println);
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

And the output

==ArrayList==
[Susy, eat fish]
[Anna, gardening]
[Billy, bowling with friends]

==HashMap==
{Susy=eat fish}
{Anna=gardening}
{Billy=bowling with friends} 

If you separated Name and Hobby column with tab \t, you should do something like this (and don't forget to close scan at end):

public void readFile() throws FileNotFoundException{
    Scanner scan = new Scanner(new File("D://a.txt"));
    ArrayList<String> names = new ArrayList<String>();
    ArrayList<String> hobbies = new ArrayList<String>();

    while(scan.hasNext()){
        String curLine = scan.nextLine();
        String[] splitted = curLine.split("\t");
        String name = splitted[0].trim();
        String hobby = splitted[1].trim();
        if(!"Name".equals(name)){
            names.add(name);
        }
        if(!"Hobby".equals(hobby)){
            hobbies.add(hobby);
        }
    }
    System.out.println(names);
    System.out.println(hobbies);
    scan.close();
}