Remove filename from a URL/Path in java

Question

How do I remove the file name from a URL or String?

String os = System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase();
        String nativeDir = Game.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getFile().toString();

        //Remove the <name>.jar from the string
        if(nativeDir.endsWith(".jar"))
            nativeDir = nativeDir.substring(0, nativeDir.lastIndexOf("/"));

        //Load the right native files
        for(File f : (new File(nativeDir + File.separator + "lib" + File.separator + "native")).listFiles()){
            if(f.isDirectory() && os.contains(f.getName().toLowerCase())){
                System.setProperty("org.lwjgl.librarypath", f.getAbsolutePath()); break;
            }
        }

That's what I have right now, and it work. From what I know, because I use "/" it will only work for windows. I want to make it platform independent

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8075373/file-separator-vs-filesystem-getseparator-vs-system-getpropertiesfile-separa — selalerer, Feb 17 '14 at 12:37

score 26 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 17 '14 at 13:13

26

Consider using org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils

You can extract the base path, file name, extensions etc with any flavor of file separator:

String url = "C:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe";

String baseUrl = FilenameUtils.getPath(url);
String myFile = FilenameUtils.getBaseName(url)
                + "." + FilenameUtils.getExtension(url);

System.out.println(baseUrl);
System.out.println(myFile);

Gives,

windows\system32\
cmd.exe

With url; String url = "C:/windows/system32/cmd.exe";

It would give;

windows/system32/
cmd.exe

answered Feb 17 '14 at 13:13

StoopidDonut

8,547
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I don't have `FilenameUtils` I can't import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils. – Yemto Feb 17 '14 at 13:37
@yemto can't import would be "not supposed to" or "don't know what lib has it"? – StoopidDonut Feb 18 '14 at 04:12
@PopoFido oh, I don't like to use library's, especially for something that should be this simple. – Yemto Feb 18 '14 at 06:24
What about the drive letter? – ed22 Jul 31 '21 at 15:41

saygley · Answer 2 · 2018-05-24T08:13:21.900

22

By utilizing java.nio.file; (afaik introduced after J2SE 1.7) this simply solved my problem:

Path path = Paths.get(fileNameWithFullPath);
String directory = path.getParent().toString();

edited May 24 '18 at 08:13

answered Jan 05 '18 at 14:21

saygley

430
7
12

2

Doesn't work well for HTTP URLs, which wasn't specifically mentioned in the question, but might be of interest to some browsing these answers. – Nate Jan 04 '19 at 04:40

score 15 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 17 '14 at 12:45

15

You are using File.separator in another line. Why not using it also for your lastIndexOf()?

nativeDir = nativeDir.substring(0, nativeDir.lastIndexOf(File.separator));

answered Feb 17 '14 at 12:45

Dirk Fauth

4,128
2
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23

Because It returns the wrong thing for my system. But it don't seam to care if it becomes C:\something\something\something/something – Yemto Feb 17 '14 at 12:46
The File.separator is returning the file separator dependent to your system. So on Windows you will get "\" while on Unix you get "/". That's why you should use the File.separator. – Dirk Fauth Feb 17 '14 at 12:50
`Game.class.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource().getLocation().getFile().toString()` returns **D:/Dropbox/NetBeansProjects/** while `System.out.println(File.separator)` returns \ so that's wrong. I have windows 7 64bit – Yemto Feb 17 '14 at 13:40
Well if that method always returns "/" you might want to perform a replacement first to ensure the same state in any case. String.replace() might help – Dirk Fauth Feb 18 '14 at 13:24
Notice that in order to get the **filename**, expression should be something like `nativeDir.substring(nativeDir.lastIndexOf(File.separator) + 1)` (so the substring *from* the separator, *to* the end). – rsenna Nov 25 '19 at 14:38

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 09 '20 at 15:20

6

File file = new File(path);
String pathWithoutFileName = file.getParent();

where path could be "C:\Users\userName\Desktop\file.txt"

answered Aug 09 '20 at 15:20

Zoe Lubanza

164
2
2

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 14 '17 at 08:01

3

The standard library can handle this as of Java 7

Path pathOnly;

if (file.getNameCount() > 0) {
  pathOnly = file.subpath(0, file.getNameCount() - 1);
} else {
  pathOnly = file;
}

fileFunction.accept(pathOnly, file.getFileName());

edited Jul 14 '17 at 08:01

Andrew

5,839
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answered Mar 14 '17 at 03:27

Jeremy Sigrist

325
2
11

1

path.getNameCount() documentation says: "the number of elements in the path, or 0 if this path only represents a root component" This could cause issues... – Andrew Jul 13 '17 at 19:53

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 16 '21 at 05:42

1

Kotlin solution:

val file = File( "/folder1/folder2/folder3/readme.txt")
val pathOnly = file.absolutePath.substringBeforeLast( File.separator )
println( pathOnly )

produces this result:

/folder1/folder2/folder3

answered May 16 '21 at 05:42

Interkot

697
8
10

Chthonic Project · Answer 7 · 2014-02-17T12:48:24.803

0

Instead of "/", use File.separator. It is either / or \, depending on the platform. If this is not solving your issue, then use FileSystem.getSeparator(): you can pass different filesystems, instead of the default.

edited Feb 17 '14 at 12:48

answered Feb 17 '14 at 12:36

Chthonic Project

8,216
1
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1

I would. But File.separator return a "\" while nativeDir uses "/" – Yemto Feb 17 '14 at 12:38
Then shouldn't something like this work? `if(nativeDir.endsWith(".jar")){ int index = Math.max(nativeDir.lastIndexOf("/"), nativeDir.lastIndexOf("\\")); nativeDir = nativeDir.substring(0, index); }` – Yemto Feb 17 '14 at 12:43
Added more info. That should resolve the difference with native dir. – Chthonic Project Feb 17 '14 at 12:49

Ksiądz Pistolet · Answer 8 · 2017-03-03T12:33:53.003

0

I solve this problem using regex.

For windows:

String path = "";
String filename = "d:\\folder1\\subfolder11\\file.ext";
String regEx4Win = "\\\\(?=[^\\\\]+$)";
String[] tokens = filename.split(regEx4Win);
if (tokens.length > 0)
   path = tokens[0]; // path -> d:\folder1\subfolder11

edited Mar 03 '17 at 12:33

answered Mar 03 '17 at 11:10

Ksiądz Pistolet

41
3

score -1 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 09 '20 at 15:14

-1

Please try below code:

file.getPath().replace(file.getName(), "");

edited Jul 09 '20 at 15:14

Shalu T D

3,921
2
26
37

answered Jul 09 '20 at 14:37

Amin Arab

530
4
19

1

Breaks if any directory has the same name as the target file. Since files without an extension are fine from an OS point of view, this may lead to something like: `C:\A\B\C\B` being changed to `C:\A\\C`, so you have unintentionally lost a directory. – Koenigsberg Oct 17 '22 at 09:24

Remove filename from a URL/Path in java

9 Answers9