problem loading .properties file in java

Question

I am having problem while loading .properties file. The following works:

private static Properties props = new Properties();
 ................
 .......................
 configurationProps.load(Test.class.getResourceAsStream("test.properties"));

But this;

private static Properties props = new Properties();
 ................
 .......................
 configurationProps.load(Test.class.getResourceAsStream("C:\\someFilder\\test.properties"));

gives the following error.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
 at java.util.Properties.load(Properties.java:267)
 at Test.init(Test.java:24)
 at Test.main(Test.java:16)

I am wondering why its not taking full path. Any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

Try

configurationProps.load(new FileInputStream("C:\\..."));

Using getResourceAsStream delegates to the ClassLoader and thus typically only works relative to the classpath. The rules for where it searches are given in the Javadoc for getResource()