Reading file as String in Java

    /** This method will read a file as String
     * @param filePath
     * @return file as String
     * @throws java.io.IOException
     */
    public static String readFileAsString(String filePath)
            throws java.io.IOException
    {
        StringBuffer fileData = new StringBuffer(1000);
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(filePath));
        char[] buf = new char[1024];
        int numRead = 0;
        while ((numRead = reader.read(buf)) != -1)
        {
            String readData = String.valueOf(buf,
                    0,
                    numRead);
            fileData.append(readData);
            buf = new char[1024];
        }
        reader.close();
        return fileData.toString();
    }