CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaeclipsefilerelative-path
user798719
user798719

Reputation: 9869

Eclipse project can not reference a file using relative paths

My file is located under the src directory. However, when I try to call it using "src/readme.txt" the file is not found. In fact, it states that java is looking for "C:\Documents and settings\john\My Documents\Downloads\eclipse-win32\eclipse\coolCarsProject\src\readme.txt".

How do I fix this? I do not want to put in the absolute path all the time.

Do I need to fix the classpath, buildpath, or change the project root, etc? It is not at all obvious from the roughly 1000 settings in Eclipse for a newbie.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 12418

Answers (3)

Mike
Mike

Reputation: 14586

Try this one:

String filePath = ".\\userFiles\\data.json";

where «.\» is a root for the Eclipse project, «userFiles» is a folder with the user's files inside of Eclipse project. Since we are talking about Windows OS, we have to use «\» and not «/» like in Linux, but the «\» is the reserved symbol, so we have to type «\\» (double backslash) to get the desired result.

Upvotes: 1

biziclop
biziclop

Reputation: 49744

Using paths relative to the current working directory is not a good idea in general, as it's often quite hard to establish what your current working directory will be. In Eclipse, it will be your project folder (unless you set it to something different in your launch configuration), in webapps it will be the webapp's root directory, in a command line app it could be anything.

Upvotes: 1

JB Nizet
JB Nizet

Reputation: 691735

First, you have to decide if you want to load the file from the file system, or if the file will in fact be bundled with your application code.

If the former, then you should really think about how your application will be launched when actually deployed, because using a relative file path means that the program should always be started from the same location: a relative path is relative to the location from where the program is started (the current directory). If this is really what you want, then edit your launch configuration in Eclipse, go to the Arguments tab, and set the working directory you want. But the src directory is not where you should put this file, since this will copy the file to the target directory, along with the classes, that will probably be put in a jar once you'll deploy the application.

If the latter, then you should not treat the file as a file, but as a resource that is loaded by the ClassLoader, using ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream() (or Class.getResourceAsStream()). Read the javadoc of those methods to understand the path to pass. If you put the file directly under src, it will be copied by Eclipse to the target directory, along with your classes, in the default package. And you should thus use SomeClass.class.getResourceAsStream("/readme.txt") to load it.

Upvotes: 9

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