Question

I have a folder called Etc which has an image I want to use in another file in the same folder, Example.java. So I have Etc\image.png and Etc\Example.java. I’ve tried using “Etc/image.png” as the image path, but that didn’t work. How should I go about this?

Also, suppose the files were in different packages, how would I do it?

My main .java classes are in a package called Main, for the record.

EDIT:

I used this:

ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getResource(“Etc\image.png”);

Answer 1

You can use Class.getResource(), which uses the class loader to obtain a URL to the resource. For example:

import java.net.URL;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;

public class Example {

    public ImageIcon getImage() {
        URL url = Example.class.getResource( "image.png" );
        if( url != null ) {
            return new ImageIcon( url );
        }
        return null; // TODO: Better error handling
    }

}

The important part is Example.class.getResource( "image.png" ) – the image path is specified relative to the named class; in this case, it’s in the same directory as the class file. You could also use this line in any other class, leaving the reference to Example.class intact.