Get the directory from a file path in java (android)

Question

Is there a function to get the directory part of a file path?

so from

String a="/root/sdcard/Pictures/img0001.jpg";

you get

"/root/sdcard/Pictures"

Solution 1

Yes. First, construct a File representing the image path:

File file = new File(a);

If you're starting from a relative path:

file = new File(file.getAbsolutePath());

Then, get the parent:

String dir = file.getParent();

Or, if you want the directory as a File object,

File dirAsFile = file.getParentFile();

Solution 2

A better way, use getParent() from File Class..

String a="/root/sdcard/Pictures/img0001.jpg"; // A valid file path 
File file = new File(a); 
String getDirectoryPath = file.getParent(); // Only return path if physical file exist else return null

http://developer.android.com/reference/java/io/File.html#getParent%28%29

Solution 3

You could also use FilenameUtils from Apache. It provides you at least the following features for the example C:\dev\project\file.txt:

• the prefix - C:\
• the path - dev\project\
• the full path - C:\dev\project\
• the name - file.txt
• the base name - file
• the extension - txt