Re: [android-developers] Re: Data safety when writing important data to SD card

On 11/27/2012 2:38 PM, Lew wrote:
> Tobiah wrote:
>
> I am opening a file for append using BufferedWriter. Each time the app
> is run, more data is added to the file. At first a made a little class
> representing the file and gave it a write() method that would take a
> string
> and send it out, then flush() the Writer. I was wondering when I
> should
> close the file, or whether I really needed to. Will java [sic]
> close the file
> for me when the app goes away? Right now, since the writes are few and
> far between, I'm just opening and closing the file each time I write
> a line to it, but that seems really awkward.
>
>
> What does "seems awkward" mean, let alone "really" awkward?
>
> What harm does "awkward" cause?

I think inelegant would have been a better choice of words but....

> What's "awkward" is holding a resource like a file open for a really
> long time
> when you aren't using it.

Nice. I feel better already.

> File handles are a finite resource. Like all such, you should manage
> them wisely.
>
> Assess the objective costs and benefits of the approach in the context
> where you use it.
>
> "Writes are few and far between", depending on what you mean by "few"
> and "far", could
> very well be a use case for closing the file between writes. Or not.

A record would be written to the file sometimes every few minutes,
and at most every 10 seconds or so.

> At what point does "not few" and "not far" become significant enough to
> justify
> not closing the file?
>
> Almost certainly the non-measurable degree of "awkwardness" is not relevant.


Thanks for clearing the waters. I feel a lot better about the way I
wrote this bit of the code.

Cheers.

Tobiah

P.S., why did you put the [sic] in my quote? Was it because
it would not be java that closes the file, but rather the OS,
or rather I'm not even close?




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