Example code

Test.java

package net.sf.jpam;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.io.Reader;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public final class Test
{
    private static final Pattern TAB = Pattern.compile("\t");



    private static class FileHolder
    {
        private static final byte TABCHAR[] = "\t".getBytes();
        // Size of the buffer size
        private static final int BUFSZ = 32768;

        // Format string for a file
        private static final String FORMAT = "/home/fge/t2.txt.%d";

        // The ByteBuffer
        private final ByteBuffer buf = ByteBuffer.allocate(BUFSZ);

        // The File object
        private final File fd;

        // RandomAccessFile
        private final RandomAccessFile file;

        FileHolder(final int index)
            throws FileNotFoundException
        {
            final String name = String.format(FORMAT, index);
            fd = new File(name);
            file = new RandomAccessFile(fd, "rw");
        }

        public void write(final String s)
            throws IOException
        {
            final byte[] b = s.getBytes();
            if (buf.remaining() < b.length + TABCHAR.length)
                flush();
            buf.put(b).put(TABCHAR);
        }

        private void flush()
            throws IOException
        {
            file.write(buf.array(), 0, buf.position());
            buf.position(0);
        }

        public void copyTo(final RandomAccessFile dst)
            throws IOException
        {
            flush();
            final FileChannel source = file.getChannel();
            final FileChannel destination = dst.getChannel();
            source.force(false);
            final long len = source.size() - TABCHAR.length;

            source.transferTo(0, len, destination);
            dst.writeBytes("\n");

        }

        public void tearDown()
            throws IOException
        {
            file.close();
            if (!fd.delete())
                System.err.println("Failed to remove file " + fd);
        }

        @Override
        public String toString()
        {
            return fd.toString();
        }
    }

    public static void main(final String... args)
        throws IOException
    {
        long before, after;

        before = System.currentTimeMillis();
        final Reader r = new FileReader("/home/fge/t.txt");
        final BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(r);

        /*
         * Read first line, count the number of elements. All elements are
         * separated by a single tab.
         */
        String line = reader.readLine();
        String[] elements = TAB.split(line);

        final int nrLines = elements.length;
        final FileHolder[] files = new FileHolder[nrLines];

        /*
         * Initialize file descriptors
         */
        for (int i = 0; i < nrLines; i++)
            files[i] = new FileHolder(i);


        /*
         * Write first lines, then all others
         */
        writeOneLine(elements, files);

        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
            elements = TAB.split(line);
            writeOneLine(elements, files);
        }

        reader.close();
        r.close();
        after = System.currentTimeMillis();

        System.out.println("Read time: " + (after - before));

        before = System.currentTimeMillis();
        final RandomAccessFile out = new RandomAccessFile("/home/fge/t2.txt",
            "rw");

        for (final FileHolder file: files) {
            file.copyTo(out);
            file.tearDown();
        }

        out.getChannel().force(false);
        out.close();

        after = System.currentTimeMillis();

        System.out.println("Write time: " + (after - before));
        System.exit(0);
    }

    private static void writeOneLine(final String[] elements,
        final FileHolder[] fdArray)
        throws IOException
    {
        final int len = elements.length;
        String element;
        FileHolder file;

        for (int index = 0; index < len; index++) {
            element = elements[index];
            file = fdArray[index];
            file.write(element);
        }
    }
}