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 25 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 17 '14 at 13:13

25

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

PopoFibo

8,281
2
29
47

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"? – PopoFibo 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

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 17 '14 at 12:45

14

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

3,538
2
10
22

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

saygley · Answer 3 · 2018-05-24T08:13:21.900

14

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

301
5
11

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 3 · Answer 4 · 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

3,330
1
33
53

answered Mar 14 '17 at 03:27

Jeremy Sigrist

321
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 2 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 09 '20 at 15:20

2

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

46
2

Chthonic Project · Answer 6 · 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

7,687
1
39
85

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 7 · 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 0 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 09 '20 at 15:14

0

Please try below code:

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

edited Jul 09 '20 at 15:14

Shalu T D

3,373
2
21
32

answered Jul 09 '20 at 14:37

Amin Arab

502
4
16

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered May 16 '21 at 05:42

0

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

477
7
9

Remove filename from a URL/Path in java

9 Answers9