While loop to create multiple files

Question

I am trying to make a Java application that will take in a bulk file with multiple messages, and then split them up and write each message to its own file. The issue that I am having is that its only creating a file with the last message inside, so I think it is overwriting for each iteration of the while loop. My code is below:

public void writeFile(StringBuilder contents, String outputFilePath) throws IOException {

    String messages = contents.toString();
    StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(messages, "$");

    FileWriter fileWriter = null;
    BufferedWriter bufferedFileWriter = null;

    while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {

        int i = 0;
        i++;

        File output = new File(outputFilePath + "_" + i + ".txt");

        try {       
            fileWriter = new FileWriter(output);
            bufferedFileWriter = new BufferedWriter(fileWriter);
            bufferedFileWriter.append(st.nextToken());
        }
        finally {
            if (bufferedFileWriter != null) {
                bufferedFileWriter.close();
            }
            if (fileWriter != null) {
                fileWriter.close();
            }   

        }
    }
}

Answer 1

move the declaration of i:

int i = 0;

outside the while loop:

int i = 0;
while(st.hasMoreTokens(){
    ...
}

That way you're not overwriting it for every iteration. Leaving it always with the value of 1.

An even better approach would be to use a for:

for(int i = 1; st.hasMoreTokens(); i++){
    ...
}

Which leaves you with a nicely scoped variable i only accessible inside the loop