Read file from resources folder

Java examples to read a file from the resources folder in either a simple Java application or a Spring MVC / Boot application.

Table of Contents

1. Setup
2. ClassLoader.getResource()
3. ResourceUtils.getFile()

1. Setup

Below image describes the folder structure used in this example. Notice the file sample.txt is in /src/main/resources folder.

2. ClassLoader getResource() and getResourceAsStream()

Methods in the classes Class and ClassLoader provide a location-independent way to locate resources. We can read a file from the application’s resources package by using ClassLoader reference.

The method getResource() returns a URL for the resource. If the resource does not exist or is not visible due to security considerations, the methods return null.

The getResource() and getResourceAsStream() methods find a resource with a given name. They return null if they do not find a resource with the specified name.

• getResourceAsStream() returns an InputStream for the resource.
• getResource() returns a URL for the resource.

Example 1: Java program to read a file from resources folder using getResource() method

package com.howtodoinjava.demo;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;

public class ReadResourceFileDemo 
{
	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException 
	{
		String fileName = "config/sample.txt";
		ClassLoader classLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();

		File file = new File(classLoader.getResource(fileName).getFile());
		
		//File is found
		System.out.println("File Found : " + file.exists());
		
		//Read File Content
		String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(file.toPath()));
		System.out.println(content);
	}
}

Program output:

File Found : true
Test Content

Example 2: Java program to read a file from resources folder using getResourceAsStream() method

package com.howtodoinjava.demo;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;

public class ReadResourceFileDemo 
{
	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException 
	{
		String fileName = "config/sample.txt";
		ClassLoader classLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();

		try (InputStream inputStream = classLoader.getResourceAsStream(fileName)) {
			
			String result = IOUtils.toString(inputStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
			System.out.println(result);

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
	}
}

Program output:

Test Content

3. ResourceUtils.getFile()

If your application happens to be Spring WebMVC or Spring Boot application then you may directly take advantage of ResourceUtils class.

Example 3: Java program to read a file from resources folder using ResourceUtils

File file = ResourceUtils.getFile("classpath:config/sample.txt")

//File is found
System.out.println("File Found : " + file.exists());

//Read File Content
String content = new String(Files.readAllBytes(file.toPath()));
System.out.println(content);

Program output:

File Found : true
Test Content

Happy Learning !!