Help saving data to text file

[Asbestos]

I'm writing a code wich generates a lot of data, and I want to save this to a text file.

The basic code that I'm working with is

	
static void writeFile(String text)
	{
	try
	{
		File file = new File(SaveFile);
		FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(file);
		BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(fw);
		writer.write(text);
		writer.close();
	}
	catch (Exception ex)
	{
	ex.printStackTrace();
	}

The problem is, however, that there is a lot of data to save.
I have tried three different methods, none of which work:

1: Save all data to a string named saveData, then pass this to writeFile at the end of the program.
Problem: saveData gets too big, and I get java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

2: Break apart that method: place the File initializations at the start of the program, use writer.write(text) everytime I get data, close at the end of the program
Problem: Needs to be in its own try-catch method

3: Use if-then statements to say
If text = "open" initialize file,
If text = "close" close file,
Otherwise write to file
Problem: Since creating the file is in an "If-Then" statement, claims file hasn't been initialized.

So what can I do? All I want to do is save a bunch of data to a text file. Any help much appreciated.

Thanks.

[sjalle]

Why can't you write the data to the file as it is generated/collected ?
If your strategy requires that all the data has to be ready for output
before you start writing to file, - then you should reconsider that strategy.

BufferedWriter writer=null;  // class global variable

try {
writer=new BufferedWrite(new FileWriter(new file(path)));
} catch (IOException ioe) {
  ioe.printStackTrace();
  return;  // bail out
}
// then do the data collection, and whereever it is logically ok, just
// write the data to the file, alternatively, just pass the writer pointer
// to the methods that are in control of the data I/O
.
.
.
try {
  writer.close();
} catch (IOException ioe) {
  ioe.printStackTrace();
}

PS: you might want to try collecting the data in a StringBuffer instead of
a String, as that class is much better suited for such a task.