Extracting parts of paths in Java

Question

I have a file path like this:

/home/Dara/Desktop/foo/bar/baz/qux/file.txt

In Java, I would like to be able to get the top two folders. Ie. baz/qux regardless of file path length or operating system (File path separators such as / : and \). I have tried to use the subpath() method in Paths but I can't seem to find a generic way to get the length of the file path.

Answer 1

The methods getNameCount() and getName(int index) of java.nio.Path should help you:

File f = new File("/home/Dara/Desktop/foo/bar/baz/qux/file.txt");
Path p = f.toPath();
int pathElements = p.getNameCount();
String topOne = p.getName(pathElements-2).toString();
String topTwo = p.getName(pathElements-3).toString();

Please be aware, that the result of getNameCount() should be checked for validity, before using it as an index for getName().

Answer 2

Using subpath and getNameCount.

    Path myPath = Paths.get("/home/Dara/Desktop/foo/bar/baz/qux/file.txt");
    Path subPath = myPath.subpath(myPath.getNameCount() -3, myPath.getNameCount() -1);