fill arrayList with dat file

Question

Here's the code:

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import static java.lang.System.*;

public class MadLib
{
private ArrayList<String> verbs = new ArrayList<String>();
private ArrayList<String> nouns = new ArrayList<String>();
private ArrayList<String> adjectives = new ArrayList<String>();

public MadLib()
{
    loadNouns();
    loadVerbs();
    loadAdjectives();
    out.println(nouns);
}

public MadLib(String fileName)
{
    //load stuff
    loadNouns();
    loadVerbs();
    loadAdjectives();


    try{
        Scanner file = new Scanner(new File(fileName));
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        out.println("Houston we have a problem!");
    }
}

public void loadNouns()
{
    nouns = new ArrayList<String>();
    try{
        //nouns = new ArrayList<String>();
        String nou = "";
        Scanner chopper = new Scanner(new File ("nouns.dat"));

        //chopper.nextLine();
        while(chopper.hasNext()){
            nou = chopper.next();
            out.println(nou);
            nouns.add(nou);
            //chopper.nextLine();
        }
        //chopper.close();
        out.println(nouns.size());
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        out.println("Will");
    }       
}

public void loadVerbs()
{
    verbs = new ArrayList<String>();
    try{
        Scanner chopper = new Scanner(new File("verbs.dat"));
        while(chopper.hasNext()){
            verbs.add(chopper.next());
            chopper.nextLine();
        }
        chopper.close();
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        out.println("run");
    }
}

public void loadAdjectives()
{
    adjectives = new ArrayList<String>();
    try{
        Scanner chopper = new Scanner(new File("adjectives.dat"));
        while(chopper.hasNext()){
            adjectives.add(chopper.next());
            chopper.nextLine();
        }
        chopper.close();
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
    }
}

public String getRandomVerb()
{

    String verb = "";
    int num = 0;
    num = (int)(Math.random()*(verbs.size()-1));
    verb = verbs.get(num);
    return verb;
}

public String getRandomNoun()
{

    String noun = "";
    int num = 0;
    if(nouns == null){
        loadNouns();
    }
    double rand = (Math.random());
    num = (int)(rand * (nouns.size()-1));
    out.println(num);
    noun = nouns.get((int) num);
    out.print(noun);
    return noun;
}

public String getRandomAdjective()
{

    String adj = "";
    int num = 0;
    num = (int)(Math.random()*(adjectives.size()-1));
    adj = adjectives.get(num);
    return adj;
}       

public String toString()
{
    String output = "The " + getRandomNoun() + getRandomVerb() + " after the " + getRandomAdjective() + getRandomAdjective() + getRandomNoun() + " while the " + getRandomNoun() + getRandomVerb() + " the " + getRandomNoun();
   return output;
}
}

and here's one of the .dat files (the other 2 are the exact same aside from the specific words they contain):

dog
pig
chicken
building
car
person
place
thing
truck
city
state
school
student
bird
turkey
lion
tiger
alligator
elephant

My issue is that I can't get any of my arrayLists to read in their appropriate .dat files and from my POV, my code seems like it should do that

UPDATE

current output aside from the absence of "Will" (I removed that line):

run
[ ] 
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0 
at java.util.ArrayList.rangeCheck(Unknown Source) 
at java.util.ArrayList.get(Unknown Source)
at MadLib.getRandomNoun(MadLib.java:130)
at MadLib.toString(MadLib.java:147) 
at java.lang.String.valueOf(Unknown Source) 
at java.io.PrintStream.println(Unknown Source)
at Lab16d.main(Lab16d.java:18) 

Answer 1

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;

import static java.lang.System.*;

public class MadLib {
    private ArrayList<String> verbs = new ArrayList<String>();
    private ArrayList<String> nouns = new ArrayList<String>();
    private ArrayList<String> adjectives = new ArrayList<String>();

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        MadLib a = new MadLib();
        System.out.println(a.toString());
    }

    public MadLib() {
        loadAllWords();
        System.out.println(nouns);
    }

    public MadLib(String fileName) {
        loadAllWords();

        try {
            Scanner file = new Scanner(new File(fileName));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public void loadAllWords() {
        loadNouns();
        loadVerbs();
        loadAdjectives();
    }

    public void loadNouns() {
        nouns = loadFile("nouns.dat");
    }

    public void loadVerbs() {
        verbs = loadFile("verbs.dat");
    }

    public void loadAdjectives() {
        adjectives = loadFile("adjectives.dat");
    }

    public ArrayList<String> loadFile(String filename) {
        ArrayList<String> words = new ArrayList<String>();
        try {
            Scanner chopper = new Scanner(new File(filename));
            while (chopper.hasNext()) {
                words.add(chopper.next());
                // just calling nextLine will cause an exception at the end of the file unless you have an blank line there on purpose, so this makes sure it does
                if (chopper.hasNext()) {
                    chopper.nextLine();
                }
            }
            chopper.close();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return words;
    }

    public String getRandomWord(ArrayList<String> words) {
        Random rand = new Random();
        int num = rand.nextInt(words.size());
        String word = nouns.get(num);
        System.out.println(word);
        return word;
    }

    public String getRandomVerb() {
        if (verbs == null) {
            loadNouns();
        }
        return getRandomWord(verbs);
    }

    public String getRandomNoun() {
        if (nouns == null) {
            loadNouns();
        }
        return getRandomWord(nouns);
    }

    public String getRandomAdjective() {
        if (adjectives == null) {
            loadNouns();
        }
        return getRandomWord(adjectives);
    }

    public String toString() {
        return "The " + getRandomNoun() + " " + getRandomVerb() + " after the " + getRandomAdjective()  + " " +  getRandomAdjective()  + " " +  getRandomNoun() + " while the " + getRandomNoun()  + " " +  getRandomVerb() + " the " + getRandomNoun();
    }
}