How to Load Resources from Classpath in Java with Example

Classpath in Java is not only used to load .class files, but also can be used to load resources e.g. properties file, images, icons, thumbnails, or any binary content. Java provides API to read these resources as InputStream or URL. Suppose, you have a properties file inside config folder of your project, and you want to load that properties file, how do you do that? Similarly, you have icons and thumbnails for your web applications on icons directory of your project, how do you load them? Answer is by using java.lang.Class' getResource() and getResourceAsStream() method. These method accepts path of resource as String and returns URL and InputStream respectively. You can obtain a reference of Class by calling either getClass() method or by using class literal. If you have an object, then you can call getClass() because its a non-static method, on the other hand, if you don't have any object, you can simply use .class with name of any class e.g. Sample.class will give you reference of java.lang.Class. These methods are available from JDK 1.1 and you can even use them anywhere you have access to core Java library. If you are creating J2ME games or application, you can use these method to load icons and tiles for your game, and all other resource for your application as well.