getResourceAsStream returns null but File.canRead() returns true

Question

I have the current file structure

-Boggle

*src
    -java files
*data
    -dictionary.txt
*derived
     -Boggle.jar

Typing

System.out.println(new File(".").getAbsolutePath()

gives

/Boggle/derived/

I am trying to load the dictionary.txt file with

getClass().getResourceAsStream("../data/dictionary.txt")

but this returns null

However when I try

new File("../data/dictionary.txt").canRead()

this returns true.

Help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

data/dictionary is not considered an embedded resource, but is simply an external resource, in this case, a simple File

If you want to to use getResource , then data/dictionary needs to be included within the context of the class path.

You can do this by including data/dictionary within one of the applications Jar files or setting the class path to include the parent directory containing the data directory