Java: Find the longest word in a text file

Last update on May 19 2025 13:14:01 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

18. Find Longest Word in File

Write a Java program to find the longest word in a text file.

Sample Solution:

Java Code:

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;

public class Exercise18 {
     public static void main(String [ ] args) throws FileNotFoundException {
              new Exercise18().findLongestWords();
         }

     public String findLongestWords() throws FileNotFoundException {

       String longest_word = "";
       String current;
       Scanner sc = new Scanner(new File("/home/students/test.txt"));


       while (sc.hasNext()) {
          current = sc.next();
           if (current.length() > longest_word.length()) {
             longest_word = current;
           }

       }
         System.out.println("\n"+longest_word+"\n");
            return longest_word;
            }
}

Sample Output:

general-purpose,

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a Java program to find and print the longest word in a text file, ignoring punctuation.
• Write a Java program to determine the longest word in a file and display its length.
• Write a Java program to scan a text file for the longest word and list all words that have the maximum length.
• Write a Java program to identify the longest word in a file using Java streams and lambda expressions.

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