Negative Seek Offset

[curtissumpter]

Hi Guys (and Girls),

Problem: Negative seek offset with respect to a RandomAccessFile's seek method.

private void writeRecord()
	{
		String v[] = inputUI.getValues();
		
		raR = new RaRecord(Integer.parseInt(v[GeneralUI.RECORD]),
							v[GeneralUI.TOOLNAME],
							Integer.parseInt(v[GeneralUI.QUANTITY]),
							Double.parseDouble(v[GeneralUI.COST]));
		
		try {
			file.seek(raR.getRecordNumber()-1 * RaRecord.size());
		} catch (IOException e1) {
			e1.printStackTrace();
		}
		try {
			raR.write(file);
		} catch (IOException e) {
			System.err.println("IOException: writeRecord: raR.write(file)");
		}
		inputUI.clearFields();
	}
}

This is the data portion of the Record object.

public class Record implements Serializable
{
	private int recordNumber;
	private String toolName;
	private int quantity;
	private double price;

In another class RaRecord which extends class Record I use the following code:

public static int size()
	{
		return 46;
	}

private String padName(RandomAccessFile f) throws IOException
	{
		char ch[], temp;
		ch = new char[15];
		
		for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++)
		{
			temp = f.readChar();
			ch[i] = temp;
		}
		
		return (new String(ch).replace('\0', ' '));
	}
	
	public void write(RandomAccessFile f) throws IOException
	{
		f.writeInt(getRecordNumber());
		writeString(f, getToolName());
		f.writeInt(getQuantity());
		f.writeDouble(getPrice());
	}
	
	public void writeString(RandomAccessFile f, String str) throws IOException
	{
		StringBuffer buf;
		
		if (str != null)
			buf = new StringBuffer(str);
		else 
			buf = new StringBuffer(15);
		
		f.writeChars(buf.toString());
	}

Please help. Negative Seek Offset. WTF is that?