All,

I am trying to ensure that a file I have open with BufferedReader is closed when I catch an IOException, but it appears as if my BufferedReader object is out of scope in the catch block.

public static ArrayList readFiletoArrayList(String fileName, ArrayList fileArrayList)
{
    fileArrayList.removeAll(fileArrayList);

    try {
        //open the file for reading
        BufferedReader fileIn = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));

        // add line by line to array list, until end of file is reached
        // when buffered reader returns null (todo). 
        while(true){
                fileArrayList.add(fileIn.readLine());
            }
    }catch(IOException e){
        fileArrayList.removeAll(fileArrayList);
        fileIn.close(); 
        return fileArrayList; //returned empty. Dealt with in calling code. 
    }
}

Netbeans complains that it "cannot find symbol fileIn" in the catch block, but I want to ensure that in the case of an IOException that the Reader gets closed. How can I do that without the ugliness of a second try/catch construct around the first?

Any tips or pointers as to best practise in this situation is appreciated,