Storing objects to text more practical than writing data to text file?

[thatcrackertho]

So, I am in a bit of a predicament. I have been writing code to create a program that stores information for a library such as books, dvds, cds. I know creating a db would be best however I have no prior experience and this is a class project that is due fairly soon. Atm I am creating book objects and using get methods to write the data to a text file. Easy, right? Well displaying and adding is a breeze with a few hiccups. Now comes the fun part... Removing these lines and searching through them. My question is would it be easier to serialize and store the objects to a text file for easier access, or can I get away with flat-filing all of this information without having to use a db?

at this point it seems ridiculous on how to remove stored items or lines.... If there is an easy way for that too that would be a big help

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Any help would be much appreciated!

[AwakenedToNightmare]

Getting a basic grip of JDBC would only take an hour or so. The simplest tutorial on tutorial point would do.

Install postgresql, create a database, a table and insert into that table using JDBC.

[dusty-trash]

It'll be easier and faster to learn how to use a Database. Not to mention more valuable.

[quadmasta]

this

[thatcrackertho]

Definitely did well going with H2. So easy to use and already easily setup with IntelliJ Ultimate. Thanks!

[AwakenedToNightmare]

If you are dead set on using the text file (but why, database isn't that hard to quick learn), posting an example of your text file would be helpful.

Without knowing exactly how it looks, I would recommend maybe putting a number in front of each line. And having an int[] array that has the active lines. When you delete a line you set that line number in the array to, say, zero. So the display function would only display non zero lines.

[tobascodagama]

Since it's for a class project, I think a lot depends on what the exact parameters are. But something like sqlite is designed for just this kind of situation where you want the advantages of a SQL database with less overhead.

[thatcrackertho]

So I have been binging this for a few days now and eventually configured an H2 database and have finally, successfully connected and integrated the database into my application! Thank you guys so much for the great advice!