How To Get The Current Working Directory In Java?

1. Overview

In this tutorial, You'll learn how to find the current working directory in java. Finding current directory can be found in various ways with File API.

We should have the basic understanding on the following areas.

Java String and method examples

Java Files examples

In the following sections, all example programs using System, Paths, FileSystems classes.

2. Example 1 - Get Current Working Directory With System.getProperty user.dir

Let us look at the first approach.

public class CurrentDirectorySystemGetpropertyExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// Calling the getPropery() method with argument "user.dir"
		String currentDirectoryLocation = System.getProperty("user.dir");

		System.out.println("Current working directoruy : " + currentDirectoryLocation);

	}

}

Output:

Current working directoruy : /Users/javaprogramto/Documents/workspace/CoreJava

Java has a System class that provides the way to access the system properties using getProperty() method.

When you call getProperty() method, it expects a right property "user.dir" to get the current directory.

This is a simple way to get where you are in the file system.

3. Example 2 - Get Current Working Directory With Paths Class

Next approach is to get the directory using Paths.get() method.

import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class CurrentDirectoryPathGetExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// Current location from path.
		Path currentPath = Paths.get("");
		
		// getting the location from Path.toAbsolutePath()
		String currentLocation = currentPath.toAbsolutePath().toString();
		
		
		System.out.println("Current working directoruy : " + currentLocation);

	}

}

The above program also produces the same result as example 1.

First, use the Paths.get("") method to get the Path object and call toAbsolutePath() which returns the File object.

On top of the file object, just call the toString() method that gives the string representation of current path.

4. Example 3 - Get Current Directory With FileSystem.getDetaults()

Final approach is to get the Path object from FileSystem.getDefaults() method.

import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Path;

public class CurrentDirectoryFileSystemsExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// Current location from FileSystems.
		Path currentPath = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(".");
		
		// getting the location from Path.toAbsolutePath()
		String currentLocation = currentPath.toAbsolutePath().normalize().toString();
		
		
		System.out.println("Current working directoruy : " + currentLocation);

	}

}

The above program produces the same output. You can choose needed approach to you.

5. Conclusion

In this article, you've seen the 3 different ways to get the current working directory or location using System, Paths, FileSystems classes.

Another simpler way using File class.

String currentDir = new File("").getAbsolutePath();

GitHub Examples

System Example

Paths Example

FileSystems Example

Ref

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