/**
    Return the lines of the given text file as an array of String objects.
    
    @param filename the name of the file to be read
    
    @return String array of file contents or null if file not found
*/
public static String[] getFileText(String filename)
{
    java.util.List<String> lines = new java.util.ArrayList<String>();
    BufferedReader br = null; // sets up a local field for the BufferedReader object
    // attempt to open an input stream to the file given
    try
    {
        InputStream input = getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(filename); // open stream
        br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(input)); // wrap it within a BufferedReader object
    }
    catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("'"+filename+"' file not found"); return (String[]) null; } // for failure to open file
    // attempt to read in the lines of text
    try
    {
        String line = null; // sets up a local field for each line of text
        while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)  lines.add(line); // read each line and add them to the 'lines' list
        br.close(); // close the BufferedReader object
    }
    catch (Exception e) { try { br.close(); } catch (Exception f) {} } // close file if read error occurred
    return lines.toArray(new String[0]);
}