Java tutorial
import java.io.BufferedReader; import java.io.FileInputStream; import java.io.InputStream; import java.io.InputStreamReader; public class Main { public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { InputStream is = new FileInputStream("c:/test.txt"); InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is); BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr); char[] cbuf = new char[is.available()]; br.read(cbuf, 2, 10); for (char c : cbuf) { if (c == (char) 0) { c = '*'; } // prints characters System.out.print(c); } } }