Java getResource() unexpected path

Question

I wanted the url of a resource in the following form

C:/Users/.../build/classes/jam/lena1.png

To achieve this I wrote the following code

System.out.println(getClass().getResource("lena1.png").getPath());

but it returns

/C:/Users/.../build/classes/jam/lena1.png

Why is the extra forward slash appearing before the url?

Answer 1

Regard that Class.getResource() returns a URL, and URLs are not only file paths: A URL involves a protocol, a host, a port, and a path. And it has its own notation and format.

What you are getting in your example is the path part of the URL, and the path always starts by a slash, according to RFC2396.

If you want to get a File from a URL, you could use new File(url.toURI())... assumming that the input URL is actually referencing a local file path.