public static List<Example> readZooData() { List<Example> res = new ArrayList<Example>(); Reader reader = null; try { reader = new FileReader(new File("zoo.csv")); LineIterator iter = IOUtils.lineIterator(reader); while (iter.hasNext()) { String line = iter.next(); String fields[] = line.split(","); Animal animal = new Animal(); for (int i = 0; i < fields.length; i++) { if (i == 0) animal.name = fields[i]; else if (i == fields.length - 1) animal.setType(fields[i]); else animal.attributes[i - 1] = Integer.parseInt(fields[i]); } res.add(animal); } } catch (Exception ex) { throw new RuntimeException(ex); } finally { IOUtils.closeQuietly(reader); } return res; }