code: public synchronized Vector getVector(String word) {
          try {
              switch (format) {
              case TEXT:
                  return new DenseVector(loadTextVector(word));
              case BINARY:
                  return new DenseVector(loadBinaryVector(word));
              case SPARSE_TEXT:
                  return new CompactSparseVector(loadSparseTextVector(word));
              case SPARSE_BINARY:
                  return new CompactSparseVector(loadSparseBinaryVector(word));
              }
          } catch (IOException ioe) {
              // rethrow as something catastrophic must have happened to the
              // underlying .sspace file
              throw new IOError(ioe);
          }
          return null;
      }
docs: {@inheritDoc}
  
  @throws IOError if any {@code IOException} occurs when reading the data
  from the underlying semantic space file.