java.io.File class contains four static separator variables. For better understanding, Let's understand with the help of some code
Note that all of these are final variables and system dependent.
Here is the java program to print these separator variables. FileSeparator.java
import java.io.File;
public class FileSeparator {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("File.separator = "+File.separator);
System.out.println("File.separatorChar = "+File.separatorChar);
System.out.println("File.pathSeparator = "+File.pathSeparator);
System.out.println("File.pathSeparatorChar = "+File.pathSeparatorChar);
}
}
Output of above program on Unix system:
File.separator = /
File.separatorChar = /
File.pathSeparator = :
File.pathSeparatorChar = :
Output of the program on Windows system:
File.separator = \
File.separatorChar = \
File.pathSeparator = ;
File.pathSeparatorChar = ;
To make our program platform independent, we should always use these separators to create file path or read any system variables like PATH, CLASSPATH.
Here is the code snippet showing how to use separators correctly.
//no platform independence, good for Unix systems
File fileUnsafe = new File("tmp/abc.txt");
//platform independent and safe to use across Unix and Windows
File fileSafe = new File("tmp"+File.separator+"abc.txt");