Using Apache Commons IO, you can use FileUtils#readLines method. It is as simple as:

List<String> lines = FileUtils.readLines(new File("..."));
for (String line : lines) {
  System.out.println(line);  
}

I am assuming the file you want to read is a true resource on your classpath, and not simply some arbitrary file you could just access via new File("path_to_file");.

Try the following using ClassLoader, where resource is a String representation of the path to your resource file in your class path.

Valid String values for resource can include:

• "foo.txt"
• "com/company/bar.txt"
• "com\\company\\bar.txt"
• "\\com\\company\\bar.txt"

and path is not limited to com.company

Relevant code to get a File not in a JAR:

File file = null;

try {

    URL url = null;
    ClassLoader classLoader = {YourClass}.class.getClassLoader(); 

    if (classLoader != null) {

        url = classLoader.getResource(resource);
    }

    if (url == null) {

        url = ClassLoader.getSystemResource(resource);
    }

    if (url != null) {

        try {

            file = new File(url.toURI());

        } catch (URISyntaxException e) {

            file = new File(url.getPath());
        }
    }

} catch (Exception ex) { /* handle it */ }

// file may be null

Alternately, if your resource is in a JAR, you will have to use Class.getResourceAsStream(resource); and cycle through the file using a BufferedReader to simulate the call to readLines().