How do I get the directory name for a particular java.io.File on the drive in Java?
For example I have a file called test.java under a directory on my D drive.
I want to return the directory name for this file.
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5 Answers
File file = new File("d:/test/test.java");
File parentDir = file.getParentFile(); // to get the parent dir
String parentDirName = file.getParent(); // to get the parent dir name
Remember, java.io.File represents directories as well as files.
2 Comments
alhelal
@skaffman Don't I get the parent directory name from file's pathname?
John Jiang
Did not work for me. getParent() returns null.
With Java 7 there is yet another way of doing this:
Path path = Paths.get("d:/test/test.java");
Path parent = path.getParent();
//getFileName() returns file name for
//files and dir name for directories
String parentDirName = path.getFileName().toString();
I (slightly) prefer this way, because one is manipulating path rather than files, which imho better shows the intentions. You can read about the differences between File and Path in the Legacy File I/O Code tutorial
Comments
Note also that if you create a file this way (supposing "d:/test/" is current working directory):
File file = new File("test.java");
You might be surprised, that both getParentFile() and getParent() return null. Use these to get parent directory no matter how the File was created:
File parentDir = file.getAbsoluteFile().getParentFile();
String parentDirName = file.getAbsoluteFile().getParent();
1 Comment
Richard Jessop
This answer gets my green check.
File file = new File("d:/test/test.java");
String dirName = file.getParentFile().getName();
Comments
Say that you have a file called test.java in C:\\myfolder directory. Using the below code, you can find the directory where that file sits.
String fileDirectory = new File("C:\\myfolder\\test.java").getAbsolutePath();
fileDirectory = fileDirectory.substring(0,fileDirectory.lastIndexOf("\\"));
This code will give the output as C:\\myfolder
answered Mar 14, 2021 at 15:49
Sarath Subramanian
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