--- a
+++ b/util/FileToList.java
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package util;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+/**
+ * Utility class to read a txt file into a List
+ * @author zhengc
+ *
+ */
+public class FileToList {
+
+	/**
+	 * Creates a List from a txt file
+	 * @param filename file that contains items
+	 * @return a List
+	 * @throws IOException
+	 */
+	public static List<String> createListFromfile(String filename) throws IOException {
+		List<String> genelist = new ArrayList<>();
+		BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File(filename)));
+		String gene = null;
+		while ((gene = br.readLine()) != null) {
+			genelist.add(gene);
+		}
+		br.close();
+		return genelist;
+	}
+
+}