new File("/a/b/c/../d").getCanonicalPath()

  will return the shortened path.

Alexander

Look at the API docs for the File(File, String) constructor.  There will
 likely be problems if the second spec is an absolute pathname (in that
the Java platform's system-dependent choice of behavior in that case may
not be the behavior you want).

Once you have a File representing the combination, there are several
ways to get the pathname string out of it.

John Bollinger
jobollin@indiana.edu

File rootDir = new File( "C:" );
File baseDir = new File( rootDir, "a/b/c" );
...

File relative = new File( baseDir, "../d" );
File wanted = relative.getCanonicalFile();

However... if you're doing the path building, it's best to avoid
hardcoding slashes, or even file.separator. Instead just use file
constructors.

"../d"
becomes
new File( "..", "d" );

"a/b/d
becomes
new File( "a", new File( "b", "c") );

In actuall code you usually won't have constructors quite like that,
since you'll be using File variables, and it protects you from subtle
gotchas of different platforms (like how on Windows starting with a
double file.separator will turn it from a file path into a UNC network
path).