What is the fastest way to read a large number of small files into memory?

Question

I need to read ~50 files on every server start and place each text file\'s representation into memory. Each text file will have its own string (which is the best type to use

Answer 1

It depends a lot on the internal structure of your text files and what you intend to do with them.

Are the files key-value dictionaries (i.e. "properties" files)? XML? JSON? You have standard structures for those.

If they have a formal structure you may also use JavaCC to build an object representation of the files.

Otherwise, if they are just blobs of data, well, read the files and put them in a String.

Edit: about search&replace- juste use String's replaceAll function.