How to get just the parent directory name of a specific file

Question

How to get ddd from the path name where the test.java resides.

File file = new File("C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/test.java");

Monoplegia

Is this for a generic file, or are you trying to get the parent directory of your source file? If the latter, I'm not sure you understand Java compilation. At runtime, test.java probably won't even exist on the computer where the program is being run. It's the compiled .class file that is run. So this will only work if you know where ddd is located, in which case there is no point in finding it programatically; just hard code it. – Monotint

Answer 1

Use File's getParentFile() method and String.lastIndexOf() to retrieve just the immediate parent directory.

Mark's comment is a better solution thanlastIndexOf():

file.getParentFile().getName();

These solutions only works if the file has a parent file (e.g., created via one of the file constructors taking a parent File). When getParentFile() is null you'll need to resort to using lastIndexOf, or use something like Apache Commons' FileNameUtils.getFullPath():

FilenameUtils.getFullPathNoEndSeparator(file.getAbsolutePath());
=> C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd

There are several variants to retain/drop the prefix and trailing separator. You can either use the same FilenameUtils class to grab the name from the result, use lastIndexOf, etc.

Lowgrade

You don't need lastIndexOf, just use file.getParentFile().getName(). – Monotint

Just in case. If it returns null (if you created File instance with relative path) - try file.getAbsoluteFile().getParentFile().getName(). – Application

@MarkPeters That only works when the file was created with a parent File, though, which I'm guessing is relatively rarely. – Lowgrade

stackoverflow.com/users/915663/nidu its works, thanks – Tuner

Answer 2

Since Java 7 you have the new Paths api. The modern and cleanest solution is:

Paths.get("C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/test.java").getParent().toString();

Result would be:

C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd

Tijuana

after getParent(), you need toString(), getFileName returns a relative Path object, representing "test.java" only. – Bybee

Answer 3

File f = new File("C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/test.java");
System.out.println(f.getParentFile().getName())

f.getParentFile() can be null, so you should check it.

Dejadeject

Just to make sure, the output is as follows: C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd – Gerri

Answer 4

Use below,

File file = new File("file/path");
String parentPath = file.getAbsoluteFile().getParent();

Cacilie

Worth pointing out that this method should have a parent set, even if the underlying file did not. – Intromit

Answer 5

If you have just String path and don't want to create new File object you can use something like:

public static String getParentDirPath(String fileOrDirPath) {
    boolean endsWithSlash = fileOrDirPath.endsWith(File.separator);
    return fileOrDirPath.substring(0, fileOrDirPath.lastIndexOf(File.separatorChar, 
            endsWithSlash ? fileOrDirPath.length() - 2 : fileOrDirPath.length() - 1));
}

Win

This throws ArrayOutOfBoundsException if you are already on root location -"/"- – Rms

Answer 6

File file = new File("C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/test.java");
File curentPath = new File(file.getParent());
//get current path "C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/"
String currentFolder= currentPath.getName().toString();
//get name of file to string "ddd"

if you need to append folder "ddd" by another path use;

String currentFolder= "/" + currentPath.getName().toString();

Forecastle

Answer 7

From java 7 I would prefer to use Path. You only need to put path into:

Path dddDirectoryPath = Paths.get("C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/test.java");

and create some get method:

public String getLastDirectoryName(Path directoryPath) {
   int nameCount = directoryPath.getNameCount();
   return directoryPath.getName(nameCount - 1);
}

Sarchet

Answer 8

In Groovy:

There is no need to create a File instance to parse the string in groovy. It can be done as follows:

String path = "C:/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/test.java"
path.split('/')[-2]  // this will return ddd

The split will create the array [C:, aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, test.java] and index -2 will point to entry before the last one, which in this case is ddd

Riata

It may surprise you, but there are still a lot of OS with different path separator characters. – Sunstone

Answer 9

For Kotlin :

 fun getFolderName() {
            
            val uri: Uri
            val cursor: Cursor?
    
            uri = MediaStore.Audio.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI
            val projection = arrayOf(MediaStore.Audio.AudioColumns.DATA)
            cursor = requireActivity().contentResolver.query(uri, projection, null, null, null)
            if (cursor != null) {
                column_index_data = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Audio.AudioColumns.DATA)
            }
            
            while (cursor!!.moveToNext()) {
    
                absolutePathOfImage = cursor.getString(column_index_data)
    
    
                val fileName: String = File(absolutePathOfImage).parentFile.name
    }
}

Lennalennard

parentFile.name is what i was looking for – Moujik

Answer 10

    //get the parentfolder name
    File file = new File( System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/.");
    String parentPath = file.getParentFile().getName();

Nomography