By default, Java reads text files using the default encoding. If you know a file's encoding, it can be specified in the constructor of the FileInputStream object that's used to read the file. The following class automates the process of reading files, using the correct encoding, provided the encoding of the file is either UTF-8, UTF-16 (big or little endian), or the system default.

package mainPackage;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class FileUtils {
/***
 * Determines the encoding of the specified file. If a UTF16 Byte Order Mark (BOM) is found an encoding of "UTF16" is returned.
 * If a UTF8 BOM is found an encoding of "UTF8" is returned. Otherwise the default encoding is returned.
 * @param filePath file path
 * @return "UTF8", "UTF16", or default encoding.
 */
private static String getEncoding(String filePath) {
String encoding = System.getProperty("file.encoding");  

BufferedReader bufferedReader = null;

try {
// In order to read files with non-default encoding, specify an encoding in the FileInputStream constructor.
bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(filePath)));

char buffer[] = new char[3];
int length = bufferedReader.read(buffer);

if (length >= 2) {
if ((buffer[0] == (char) 0xff && buffer[1] == (char) 0xfe) /* UTF-16, little endian */ || 
    (buffer[0] == (char) 0xfe && buffer[1] == (char) 0xff) /* UTF-16, big endian */) {
encoding = "UTF16";
}
}
if (length >= 3) {
if (buffer[0] == (char) 0xef && buffer[1] == (char) 0xbb && buffer[2] == (char) 0xbf) /* UTF-8 */  {
encoding = "UTF8";
}
}
}
catch (IOException ex) {
}
finally {
if (bufferedReader != null) {
try {
bufferedReader.close();
}
catch (IOException ex) {
}
}
}
 
return encoding;
}

/***
 * Returns the text of the specified file. If a Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) is found, the file is read with the corresponding encoding.
 * Otherwise the file is read using the default encoding.
 * @param filePath file path
 * @return text of file
 * @throws IOException
 */
public static String readFile(String filePath) throws IOException {
String encoding = getEncoding(filePath);

BufferedReader bufferedReader = null;

StringBuffer text = new StringBuffer();

try {
bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(filePath), encoding));

char[] buffer = new char[1024 * 16];
int length;

while ((length = bufferedReader.read(buffer)) != -1) {
text.append(buffer, 0, length);
}
}
finally {
if (bufferedReader != null) {
bufferedReader.close();
}
}

return text.toString();
}
}