Read file contents into a char[]

getFileContents

public char[] getFileContents(File file) {
		
        // char array to store the file contents in
	char[] contents = null;
	
	try {
                // Read in the contents line by line storing them in a StringBuffer
		BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
		StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
		String line = "";
		while((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
			// append the content and the lost new line.
			sb.append(line + "\n");
		}
		contents = new char[sb.length()];
		sb.getChars(0, sb.length(), contents, 0);
		
		assert(contents.length > 0);
	}
	catch(IOException e) {
		System.out.println(e.getMessage());
	}
	
	return contents;
}