NSPathUtilities

Inherits from:
Object

Package:
com.webobjects.foundation

Class Description

This class provides static methods that are useful when working with paths. Specifically, it includes methods that extract particular path components ( lastPathComponent and pathExtension), modify paths ( stringByAppendingPathComponent, stringByAppendingPathExtension, stringByDeletingLastPathComponent, stringByDeletingPathExtension, and stringByStandardizingPath), and return special paths ( homeDirectory).

The NSPathUtilities class cannot be instantiated.

Method Types

Extracting path components

lastPathComponent
pathExtension

Manipulating paths

stringByAppendingPathComponent
stringByAppendingPathExtension
stringByDeletingLastPathComponent
stringByDeletingPathExtension
stringByNormalizingExistingPath
stringByStandardizingPath

Resolving special paths

homeDirectory

Deprecated methods

URLWithPath
fileExistsAtPath
pathIsAbsolute
pathIsEqualToString

Static Methods

fileExistsAtPath

public static boolean fileExistsAtPath(String aString)

Deprecated in the Java Foundation framework. Don't use this method. Use (new File(aString)).exists() instead.

homeDirectory

public static String homeDirectory()

Returns a string containing the home directory path for the user who executes the application.

lastPathComponent

public static String lastPathComponent(String aString)

Returns the last path component of aString. The following table illustrates the effect of lastPathComponent on a variety of different paths:

aString's Value	String Returned
"`/tmp/scratch.tiff`"	"`scratch.tiff`"
"`/tmp/scratch`"	"`scratch`"
"`/tmp/`"	"`tmp`"
"`scratch`"	"`scratch`"
"`/`"	"" (an empty string)

pathExtension

public static String pathExtension(String aString)

Interprets aString as a path, returning the aString's extension, if any (not including the extension divider). The following table illustrates the effect of pathExtension on a variety of different paths:

aString's Value	String Returned
"`/tmp/scratch.tiff`"	"`tiff`"
"`/tmp/scratch`"	"" (an empty string)
"`/tmp/`"	"" (an empty string)
"`/tmp/scratch..tiff`"	"`tiff`"

pathIsAbsolute

public static boolean pathIsAbsolute(String aString)

Deprecated in the Java Foundation framework. Don't use this method. Use (new File(aString)).isAbsolute() instead.

pathIsEqualToString

public static boolean pathIsEqualToString( String string1, String string2)

Deprecated in the Java Foundation framework. Don't use this method. You should never have to invoke it.

stringByAppendingPathComponent

public static String stringByAppendingPathComponent( String string1, String string2)

Returns a string made by appending string1 with string2, preceded by if necessary by a path separator. The following table illustrates the effect of this method on a variety of different paths, assuming that string2 is supplied as "scratch.tiff":

string1's Value	Resulting String
"`/tmp`"	"`/tmp/scratch.tiff`"
"`/tmp/`"	"`/tmp/scratch.tiff`"
"`/`"	"`/scratch.tiff`"
"" (an empty string)	"`scratch.tiff`"

stringByAppendingPathExtension

public static String stringByAppendingPathExtension( String string1, String string2)

Returns a string made by appending to string1 an extension separator followed by string2. Note that if string1 ends with one or more slashes ("/"), these slashes are deleted. The following table illustrates the effect of this method on a variety of different paths, assuming that string2 is supplied as "tiff":

string1's Value	Resulting String
"`/tmp/scratch.old`"	"`/tmp/scratch.old.tiff`"
"`/tmp/scratch.`"	"`/tmp/scratch..tiff`"
"`/tmp/`"	"`/tmp.tiff`"
"`scratch`"	"`scratch.tiff`"

stringByDeletingLastPathComponent

public static String stringByDeletingLastPathComponent(String aString)

Returns a string made by deleting the last path component from aString, along with any final path separator. If aString represents the root path, however, it's returned unaltered. The following table illustrates the effect of this method on a variety of different paths:

aString's Value	Resulting String
"`/tmp/scratch.tiff`"	"`/tmp`"
"`/tmp/lock/`"	"`/tmp`"
"`/tmp/`"	"`/`"
"`/tmp`"	"`/`"
"`/`"	"`/`"
"`scratch.tiff`"	"" (an empty string)

stringByDeletingPathExtension

public static String stringByDeletingPathExtension(String aString)

Returns a string made by deleting the extension (if any, and only the last) from aString. Strips any trailing path separator before checking for an extension. If aString represents the root path, however, it's returned unaltered. The following table illustrates the effect of this method on a variety of different paths:

aString's Value	Resulting String
"`/tmp/scratch.tiff`"	"`/tmp/scratch`"
"`/tmp/`"	"`/tmp`"
"`scratch.bundle/`"	"`scratch`"
"`scratch..tiff`"	"`scratch.`"
".`tiff`"	"" (an empty string)
"`/`"	"`/`"

stringByNormalizingExistingPath

public static String stringByNormalizingExistingPath(String aString)

Returns a string containing the "normalized" path for an existing file with path aString. If the file does not exist, this method returns null. The normalized path is always absolute and corresponds to the canonical path returned by the java.io.File.getCanonicalPath method. See Sun's documentation for this method for more information.

See Also: stringByStandardizingPath

stringByStandardizingPath

public static String stringByStandardizingPath(String aString)

Returns a string made by resolving various elements of aString. If the path contains tilde (~), inserts the home directory path in its place. If the path contains the parent directory marker (..) removes the previous path component from the path. If the parent directory marker is at the beginning of aString, throws an IllegalArgumentException. The following table illustrates the effect of this method on a variety of different paths assuming that the home directory is "/Local/Users/guest":

aString's Value	Resulting String
"`~/scratch.tiff`"	"`/Local/Users/guest/scratch.tiff`"
"`~`"	"`/Local/Users/guest`"
"`~/..`"	"`/Local/Users/`"
"`guest/../john/scratch.tiff`"	"`john/scratch.tiff`"
"`../scratch.tiff`"	throws IllegalArgumentException

URLWithPath

public static java.net.URL URLWithPath(String aString)

Deprecated in the Java Foundation framework. Don't use this method. Use new URL("file://" + aString) instead.