Unable to read properties file from java

Question

I am unable to read the properties from the file . When I try to print it gives me null, When I debugged I understood it is not loading the file in function pro.Load() . However my path is correct, still I am unable to load the file

package AdvancedJava;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;

public class ReadingPropertiesFile {

public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException {
    Properties pro = new Properties();

    String path = "C://Users//310259741//Documents//ProjectManagment//JavaBasics//object.properties";

    // BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(path));
    File f = new File(path);
    FileInputStream fis = null;
    try {
        fis = new FileInputStream(f);
        pro.load(fis);
    }

    catch (IOException e) {
        System.out.println(e.getMessage());
    }

    System.out.println(pro.getProperty("lastname"));

  }

}

Properties file contents

firstname = John
lastname = harry
Automation = Selenium

Answer 1

I think the problem is in path:

String path = "C://Users//310259741//Documents//ProjectManagment//JavaBasics//object.properties";

should be like this:

String path = "C:\\Users\\310259741\\Documents\\ProjectManagment\\JavaBasics\\object.properties";

Also make sure you have a correct path to your properties file. If it is inside your project, the path should be like this:

String path = "C:\\...\\ProjectFolder\\src\\main\\resources\\object.properties";

Answer 2

Your example works fine for me. Without a stacktrace though, we won't be able to help you regarding the NPE you're getting.

In any way though, I couple of hints regarding your code. I would suggest using a try - with resources when operating with the FileInputStream to make sure that the resource is going to be closed once done.

You can avoid using new File(path); . Instead I would suggest using Paths from the java.nio.* package. An example of this based on your code snippet would be the following:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Properties properties = new Properties();
    try (FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream(Paths.get("E:\\test\\file.txt").toFile())) {
        properties.load(stream);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    System.out.println(properties.getProperty("lastname"));
}

The advantage of using Paths is that they're (if not mistaken) system agnostic meaning that you won't need to worry about providing the proper path delimiters.

Answer 3

Actually, path should be with another separator

"C:\\Users\\310259741\\Documents\\ProjectManagment\\JavaBasics\\object.properties";

but what I should suggest you - it's to store your app properties files under your resource folder, kinda:

src/main/resources/config.properties

than you gonna be able to access this file like this:

public Properties extractFrom(String fileName) {
    Properties properties = new Properties();

    try (InputStream inputStream = PropertiesExtractor.class
            .getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(fileName)) {
        properties.load(inputStream);
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Cannot load properties", ex);
    }

    return properties;
}

extractFrom("config.properties");