Files : Path,Canonical Path,Absolute path ?

[Jennifer Wallace]

I am not clear in my understanding of this whole issue of "path".
What I know is that path of a file means the location of a file in a computer system.
But what is the path name which we give in the File constructor ?
what is canonical path and absolute path ?
Could somebody explain this in very simple terms or examples ?

[Cindy Glass]

Try this:
http://www.javaranch.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=33&t=001420

[Jennifer Wallace]

Thanks. I am able to grasp the difference between Canonical and Absolute paths.
But one another doubt,
"test.txt" exists in my current working directory and if I try to print the parent directory of the file, I get null. What am I missing here ?
File f=new File("test.txt");
System.out.println(f.getParent{});

[Bosun Bello]

You have to specify the entire path when you create the file object.File f=new File(path to file\"test.txt");