code: public static List<String> linesFromFile(String filename,String encoding) {
      try {
        List<String> lines = new ArrayList<String>();
        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new EncodingFileReader(filename,encoding));
        String line;
        while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
          lines.add(line);
        }
        in.close();
        return lines;
      }
      catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
      }
    }
docs: Returns the contents of a file as a list of strings.  The list may be
  empty, if the file is empty.  If there is an IOException, it is caught
  and null is returned. Encoding can also be specified