Problem with relative file path

Question

So here is my program, which works ok:

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.Locale;

public class ScanSum {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Scanner s = null;
        double sum = 0;
        try {
            s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("D:/java-projects/HelloWorld/bin/usnumbers.txt")));
            s.useLocale(Locale.US);

            while (s.hasNext()) {
                if (s.hasNextDouble()) {
                    sum += s.nextDouble();
                } else {
                    s.next();
                }
            }
        } finally {
            s.close();
        }

        System.out.println(sum);
    }
}

As you can see, I am using absolute path to the file I am reading from:

s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("D:/java-projects/HelloWorld/bin/usnumbers.txt")));

The problem arises when I try to use the relative path:

s = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(new FileReader("usnumbers.txt")));

I get an error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at ScanSum.main(ScanSum.java:24)

The file usnumbers.txt is in the same directory as the ScanSum.class file:

D:/java-projects/HelloWorld/bin/ScanSum.class
D:/java-projects/HelloWorld/bin/usnumbers.txt

How could I solve this?

Answer 1

If aioobe@'s suggestion doesn't work for you, and you need to find out which directory the app is running from, try logging the following:

new File(".").getAbsolutePath()

Answer 2

From which directory is the class file executed? (That would be the current working directory and base directory for relative paths.)

If you simply launch the application from eclipse, the project directory will be the working directory, and you should in that case use "bin/usnumbers.txt".