Question

I am making an application where the user picks a file from:

FilePicker.PickFile(filename)

where filename is a string.

In the method, it will translate into:

File file = new File(filename);

and nothing is wrong with that. Next, I do,

if(file.exists()){
    System.out.println(file.getName());
}
else{
    System.out.println("Fail.");
}

and this is where the problem begins. I want to get the name of the file, say “HELLO.txt,” but if filename is “hello.txt,” it still passes the file.exists() check, and file.getName() returns as “hello.txt,” not “HELLO.txt”. Is there a way, to return file.getName() as the case-sensitive version as “HELLO.txt?” Thanks!

An example:

HELLO.txt is the real file

FilePicker.PickFile("hello.txt");

OUTPUT:

hello.txt

Answer 1

When you are using Windows, which is case preserving (FAT32/NTFS/..), you can use file.getCanonicalFile().getName() to get the canonical name of the selected file.

When you are using Linux or Android and you want to select a file based on a file name that does not necessarily match case, iterate through all files in the file’s directory (file.getParent()), and pick the one that .equalsIgnoreCase the filename. Or see Case-insensitive File.equals on case-sensitive file system