title: How to read data from a text file into arrays in Java, skip certain elements
body: <p>I need help with an assignment I have to do for my class. I have only just started with Java so i'm pretty new with it. I need to write a code that will scan numbers from a text file then calculate them and create some averages. I used a for loop to scan the file but I don't know how to scan it so it skips every third line. I need each column of text rather than each line. The text file contains 3 columns and 7 rows.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static void main(String [] args){
      readData("Sample.in");
  }
  
  static void readData(String fileName){
      try{
          int[] breakfast= new int[7];
          int[] lunch=new int[7];
          int[] dinner= new int[7];
  
          File input = new File(fileName);        // Creates Scanner to read line from the text file
          Scanner scanLine = new Scanner(input);  // Reads entire line from the file
  
          String line= scanLine.nextLine();       // To read numbers from the Line buffer
  
          Scanner scanNumber = new Scanner(line); // to read three numbers from the line buffer
  
          for(int meal =0; meal&lt;3; meal++){       // Checks whether the number is present in the line
              if(scanNumber.hasNextInt()){        // read number from the line buffer and store it in the calories variable
  
                  int calories = scanNumber.nextInt();
                  System.out.print(calories+" ");
  
              }
          }
          System.out.println("");
      } catch(FileNotFoundException e){                   // catches exception in case the file is missing
          System.out.println(e);
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Example input file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>200 1000 800 
  450 845 1200
  800 250 400 
  0 1500 1800
  600 500 1000
  700 1400 1700
  675 400 900
  </code></pre>