Unable to open txt file

Question

I've got a school project whereas we are writing a Java program in netbeans. The project has both a substring and a points game, using a separate file (dictionary.txt) as a reference to check substrings or points.

I've been able to write the project (with the help of stackoverflow, thankyou very much) up to a point of being able to access the dictionary file itself.

Code is as below:

import java.io.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Scanner;


public class Word_Games  {
// The name of the file to open.


public static String fileName = "dictionary.txt";


// This will reference one line at a time
public static String line = null;

// Create a new Scanner object
public static Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);


// Method for Selection Menu 
public static void getSelection() {
    
    // Declare variable for program selection.
    String userSelection = "";
    
    System.out.printf("%n");
    System.out.printf("%n");

    // Print menu selection
    System.out.println("Welcome to the Word Games program menu.");
    System.out.println("Select from one of the following options.");
    System.out.println("1. Substring problem.");
    System.out.println("2. Points problem.");
    System.out.println("3. Exit.");
    System.out.print("Enter your selection: ");
    
    userSelection = sc.nextLine();
    
    switch(userSelection) {
    case "1":
        substringProblem();
        break;
    case "2": 
        pointsProblem();
        break;
    case "3":
        System.out.println();
        System.out.println("Goodbye!");
        break;
    default:
        System.out.println();
        System.out.println("Invalid option. Try again.");
        getSelection();
        break;
    }
}

// PROBLEM 1
public static void substringProblem() {
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println("Substring problem.");
    
    // Ask for users substring
    System.out.print("Enter a substring: ");
    String subString = sc.nextLine();
    String s = "";
    if(subString.length() > 0) {
        s = subString.substring(0, 1);
    }
    
    
    try {
        // FileReader reads text files in the default encoding.
        FileReader fileReader = 
            new FileReader(fileName);

        // Always wrap FileReader in BufferedReader.
        BufferedReader bufferedReader = 
            new BufferedReader(fileReader);
        
        if(s.length() > 0) {
            while((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
                
                ArrayList<String> result = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(line));
                
                if (line.startsWith(s)) {
                    result.add("prefix");
                }
                
                String charInbetween = line.substring(1, line.length()); 
                if (charInbetween.indexOf(s, 0) != -1) {
                    result.add("infix");
                }
                
                if (line.endsWith(s)) {
                    result.add("suffix");
                } 
            
                if (result.size() == 1) {
                     result.add("not found");
                }
                
                System.out.println(String.join(" - ", result));   
        }   
       }
        // Always close files.
        bufferedReader.close();         
    }
    catch(FileNotFoundException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Unable to open file '" + 
            fileName + "'");                
    }
    catch(IOException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Error reading file '" 
            + fileName + "'");                  
        // Or:
        // ex.printStackTrace();
    }
    getSelection();
}
    

// PROBLEM 2
public static void pointsProblem() {
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println("Points problem.");
    try {
        // FileReader reads text files in the default encoding.
        FileReader fileReader = 
            new FileReader(fileName);

        // Always wrap FileReader in BufferedReader.
        BufferedReader bufferedReader = 
            new BufferedReader(fileReader);

        while((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {     
                characterPoints();
        }   

        // Always close files.
        bufferedReader.close();         
    }
    catch(FileNotFoundException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Unable to open file '" + 
            fileName + "'");                
    }
    catch(IOException ex) {
        System.out.println(
            "Error reading file '" 
            + fileName + "'");                  
        // Or:
        // ex.printStackTrace();
    }
   getSelection();
}


public static void characterPoints()
{
    char[] wordArr =line.toCharArray();
    int score = 0;
    
    // Loop through array and print out each char and it's position.
    for (int i = 0; i < wordArr.length; i++) {
        
        // Declare letter and save to a variable.
        char letter = wordArr[i];
        
        // Set the score by adding the value of each character.
        score+=getValueLetter(letter);
    }
    
    if (score < 2) {
        System.out.printf("%s is worth %d point. %n", line, score);
    }
    else {
        System.out.printf("%s is worth %d points. %n", line, score);
    }
    
}


public static int getValueLetter(char letter){
    switch (letter){
        case 'g':
        case 'd': return 2;

        case 'b':
        case 'c':
        case 'm':
        case 'p': return 3;

        case 'f':
        case 'h':
        case 'v':
        case 'w':
        case 'y': return 4;

        case 'k': return 5;

        case 'j':
        case 'x': return 8;

        case 'q':
        case 'z': return 10;

        default: return 1;
    }
}


public static void main(String [] args) {
         getSelection();
}
}
Copy

I've tried a few methods such as movine the dictionary.txt file outside of the src directory, using the full filepath, an XML or txt file too.

The machine I am using this in is a windows virtual machine on a Debian computer. Can't imagine that would change anything but just in case.

Thanks for helping!