Java- relative path of text file in main?

Question

I was wondering how to specifiy a relative path name to a text file that is stored in my src folder of a java project. I would like to store a string with the path of this text file. For example if I had example.txt located in the src folder of my java project how would I go about finding its relative path? I am also doing this in my main so I'm having trouble using .getResource(). How would I do this? Thanks.

My files path is as followed from the properties in eclipse /MyProject/src/data.txt

I've tried:

String path = "/MyProject/src/data.txt";

But that doesn't work?

The file must be in the relative path of the java/jar file that will be executed, not of the sources. — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 07 '13 at 20:50
found this post when I encountered an error about "cannot find file specified" then I realized after several attempts that the file name should be in lowercase as in yourfile.fileextension. — heisenberg, Aug 20 '17 at 06:49

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '13 at 20:53

16

If you are using eclipse, place your text file in the root of the project folder, outside the /src and /bin folders. It should be now accessible via a relative path directly.

If you want to access a file in src folder, you have to append the /src/ prefix before the file path/name

answered Mar 07 '13 at 20:53

chiffa

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This is what I was looking for. Placing it outside the src folder worked. – zProgrammer Mar 07 '13 at 21:03
In windows to access a.txt file in src folder use "src/a.txt" not "/src/a.txt" – Al-Alamin Nov 01 '17 at 04:39

sab · Answer 2 · 2014-05-10T00:33:04.807

11

Use the src/ prefix before the file path/name.

String path = "src/data.txt";

edited May 10 '14 at 00:33

answered May 08 '14 at 10:25

sab

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score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

3

The path is relative to the directory you execute the "java" command.e.g.

 /opt/projects/myproject>$ java -cp <whatever your classpath is that contains your class files> com.mycompany.mypackage.MyJavaClass

in this case the MyJavaClass would find files relative to the directory
/opt/projects/myproject

There is another way to do this if you like: you can use load resources, which are found via the classpath mechanism.

 getClass().getResource("foo.txt");

You can see this posting for more info

Preferred way of loading resources in Java

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Mar 07 '13 at 20:57

WestCoastProjects

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you can't use "this" in a static method – zProgrammer Mar 07 '13 at 20:58
getClass is not available in a static context. – Will Wu Jul 05 '18 at 02:14

Java- relative path of text file in main?

3 Answers3

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