Java split target path with \

Question

I want to control in which folder my file is.

I work with a certain folder structure:

Main folder
processing subfolder
processed subfolder

To write my unit tests I want to put the test folder in the target which gives following folder structures

target\test-folder\

This is the main folder

target\test-folder\processing\

This is the subfolder processing

target\test-folder\processed

This is the subfolder processed

I want to print out in which folder a certain file is, what I wanted to do is the following:

String[] directories = PATH.split("\"");
System.out.println(directories[directories.length - 2]);

When I debug I see that my array directories only contain 1 item, with the whole path, so my split is probably wrong.

What should I put as split value?

I agree with @Raedwald. You should not do String manipulation but rather use the File object, figure out the parent, and so on so forth — David Brossard
– David Brossard, Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 12:16

novy1234 · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-08 12:22:18Z

2

First of all you are using backslash as an escape character instead of what you want. You should split with argument "\\", HOWEVER I'd advise you to use FileSystems.getDefault().getSeparator() instead of backslash, so it might run on linux or any other system (perhaps even in some magic land where people use ^ as path separator). Unfortunately in Windows it returns \ (which is escape character) so you have to quote it using Pattern.quote(String)

The code should look like this:

String[] directories = PATH.split(Pattern.quote(FileSystems.getDefault().getSeparator()));

edited Apr 8, 2015 at 12:22

answered Apr 8, 2015 at 12:13

novy1234

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3 Comments

Jonas Audenaert Over a year ago

This throws: java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException: Unexpected internal error near index 1 \

novy1234 Over a year ago

Edited my answer, please try again

Jonas Audenaert Over a year ago

and it works. Thanks for the effort, you deserve the credits!

assylias · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-08 12:26:26Z

1

Instead of splitting strings you should use the built in classes, such as Path. Contrived example to access the individual elements of the path:

Path p = Paths.get("target/test-folder/processed");
for (Path element : p) System.out.println(element); //loop over all elements
System.out.println(p.getName(2)); //access a specific element

which outputs:

target
test-folder
processed
processed

answered Apr 8, 2015 at 12:26

assylias

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1 Comment

Jonas Audenaert Over a year ago

One little detail, this needs to be dynamical. So it needs to be used in every folder on the file system with the 2 subfolders. But thanks for the answer.

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