Java in JSP page can't find local file

Question

Hi. I am very new to JSP development. I am having a strange issue. When I try to access a file within the same directory as my JSP file I get a FileNotFoundException thrown. Although, I can link the file using HTML so I know it is there in the proper directory.
<%
String line;
int i = 0;
try {
     File file  = new File("test1.csv");
     Scanner in = new Scanner(file);
     while (in.hasNextLine()) {
          line = in.nextLine();
          String strArray[] = line.split(",");
          for(int j = 0; j < strArray.length; ++j) {
               out.print((i != 0) ? (" " + strArray[j] + " ") : (" <b>" + strArray[j] + "</b> "));
          out.println("<br>");
          i++;
catch(IOException e) {
      out.print(e);
%>Anyone know how I can get the JSP to read the file?

Answer 1

java.io.File understands disk file system paths only, not web paths. Also, using absolute paths in java.io stuff is preferred above relative paths, because the current working directory may differ per environment.
In case of a webapplication you can use ServletContext#getRealPath() to convert a web path to an absolute disk file system path which you can use further in the usual java.io stuff.