Usefull Java methods for reading resources.

ResourcesUtil.java

import com.google.common.base.Charsets;
import com.google.common.io.CharSource;
import com.google.common.io.CharStreams;
import com.google.common.io.InputSupplier;
import com.google.common.io.Resources;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

/**
 * User: pfh(Kristijan Šarić)
 */
public class ResourcesUtil {
    // Java
    public static InputStream getStreamFromStringPath( Class aClass, String stringPath ) {
        return aClass.getResourceAsStream( stringPath );
    }

    // Java + Guava
    public static String getResourceToString( final String fileName ) throws IOException {
        final CharSource charSource = Resources.asCharSource(
                Resources.getResource( fileName ), Charsets.UTF_8
        );

        final StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        charSource.copyTo( stringBuilder );

        return stringBuilder.toString();
    }

    public static String getFileContents( final String fileName ) {
        Preconditions.checkNotNull( fileName, "Unable to retrieve text from null." );

        final File sourceFile = new File( fileName );

        try {
            final String fileContents = Files.toString( sourceFile, Charsets.UTF_8 );

            // verify the content is valid
            if ( Strings.isNullOrEmpty( fileContents ) ) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Invalid file path. File content NULL or EMPTY." );
            } else {
                return fileContents;
            }

        } catch ( IOException e ) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            throw new IllegalArgumentException( "File loading exception. Invlid file path." );
        }
    }

    // Java + Guava
    public static String streamToString( final InputStream finalSource ) throws IOException {
        final ByteSource supplier = new ByteSource() {
            @Override
            public InputStream openStream() throws IOException {
                return finalSource;
            }
        };
        final CharSource charSource = supplier.asCharSource( Charsets.UTF_8 );

        return charSource.read();
    }

    public static java.sql.Date getCurrentSqlDate() {
        java.util.Calendar cal = java.util.Calendar.getInstance();
        java.util.Date utilDate = cal.getTime();
        java.sql.Date sqlDate = new Date( utilDate.getTime() );

        return sqlDate;
    }
}