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| ===Files vs. file objects=== |
| |
| What exactly is the difference between a filename on disk and a |
| <tt>FileObject</tt>? How do I convert them? |
| |
| Raw files on disk are generally represented in Java using <tt>java.io.File</tt>. These correspond directly to what the operating system thinks of as a file. |
| |
| Under the Filesystems API, raw files are not usually manipulated |
| directly. Rather, you should usually be using <tt>FileObject</tt>. |
| Besides the fact that most other APIs that |
| work with files expect <tt>FileObject</tt>, these have a |
| number of advantages: |
| |
| * The filesystem they come from need not correspond to physical files on disk, but could be JAR file entries, or potentially database entries, FTP downloads, etc. |
| |
| * The rest of the IDE can interact with them in an object-oriented fashion, including locking and change notification. |
| |
| However a <tt>FileObject</tt> must always really exist on disk (or whatever backing storage is used), unlike <tt>File</tt>. |
| |
| In case translation from one to the other is necessary: |
| * To look for a <tt>FileObject</tt> representing a <tt>File</tt>, use <tt>FileUtil.toFileObject(File)</tt>. |
| * To look for a <tt>File</tt> from a <tt>FileObject</tt>, you may use <tt>FileUtil.toFile(FileObject)</tt>. |
| |
| ===Apache Migration Information=== |
| |
| The content in this page was kindly donated by Oracle Corp. to the |
| Apache Software Foundation. |
| |
| This page was exported from http://wiki.netbeans.org/DevFaqFileVsFileObject , |
| that was last modified by NetBeans user Tboudreau |
| on 2010-01-24T05:41:34Z. |
| |
