How to access an existing directory in your project without knowing it's path Java

Question

I want to write a method that iterates through current files in a directory named "Users". Since different machines have different absolute paths i need a way of accessing this folder without hardcoding the path.

assume I am in the src folder and the Users folder already exists.

    public static boolean validUsername(String user) {
        File dir = new File("./Users/");
        File[] directoryListing = dir.listFiles();
        System.out.println(dir);
        System.out.println(directoryListing);
        if (directoryListing != null) {
            for (File child : directoryListing) {
                // Do something with child
                // think child is filename?
                if (user.equals(child.getName())){
                    return false;

                }
            }
        }
        return true;
    }

whenever i call this method in the main method, the directory listing variable is always null, even if the Users folder has files in it already.

Answer 1

There are many ways to solve this. There is some of them

1. Put your path in config file
2. Use relative path
3. Use System property variables