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Java File Class File getParentFile() method with Example

Java File Class File getParentFile() method: Here, we are going to learn about the File getParentFile() method of File class with its syntax and example.
Submitted by Preeti Jain, on July 10, 2019

File Class File getParentFile()

• This method is available in package java.io.File.getParentFile().
• This method is used to return the parent file of the given file object.
• The return type of this method is File (i.e It returns the parent file of the given file object and parent file is in File form.

Syntax:

    File getParentFile(){
    }

Parameter(s):

We don't pass any object as a parameter in the method of the File.

Return value:

The return type of this method is File i.e. It returns the parent file of the given file object if parent file does not exist then it returns null as a string.

Java program to demonstrate example of getParentFile() method

// import the File class because we will use File class methods
import java.io.*;

// import the Exception class because it may raise an 
// exception when working with files
import java.lang.Exception;

public class GetParentFile {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            // Specify the path of file and we use double slashes to 
            // escape '\' character sequence for windows otherwise 
            // it will be considerable as url.
            File file1 = new File("C:\\Users\\computer clinic\\OneDrive\\Articles\\ myjava.txt");
            File file2 = new File("myjava.txt");

            // By using getParentFile() method returns a File which 
            // contain the parent file of the given file object.
            File parent_file1 = file1.getParentFile();

            // By using getParentFile() method returns null as a string 
            // because there is no parent file of the given file object.
            File parent_file2 = file2.getParentFile();

            // Display the parent of the given file object
            System.out.println("The parent of the given parent_file1 is :" + parent_file1);
            System.out.println("The parent of the given parent_file2 is :" + parent_file2);

        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("An error occurred.");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Output

D:\Programs>javac GetParentFile.java

D:\Programs>java GetParentFile
The parent of the given parent_file1 is :C:\Users\computer clinic\OneDrive\Articles
The parent of the given parent_file2 is :null