GetFileAsString

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
 
... 
 
    private final static String NEWLINE = System.getProperty("line.separator");
 
    /**
     * 
     * reads a the content of a file and returns is as a String
     *  
     * @param filename the filename to read
     * @return the String containing the text of the file
     * @throws IOException   
     */
    public static String getFileAsString(String filename) throws IOException {
	try {
	    BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filename));
	    StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer();
	    String line;
	    while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
		stringBuffer.append(line);
		stringBuffer.append(NEWLINE);
	    }
	    bufferedReader.close();
	    return stringBuffer.toString();
	} catch (IOException e) {
	    throw new IOException ("unable to read from file: "+ filename );
	}
    }