problem loading .properties file in java

I am having problem while loading .properties file. The f开发者_StackOverflowollowing works:

private static Properties props = new Properties();
 ................
 .......................
 configurationProps.load(Test.class.getResourceAsStream("test.properties"));

But this;

private static Properties props = new Properties();
 ................
 .......................
 configurationProps.load(Test.class.getResourceAsStream("C:\\someFilder\\test.properties"));

gives the following error.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
 at java.util.Properties.load(Properties.java:267)
 at Test.init(Test.java:24)
 at Test.main(Test.java:16)

I am wondering why its not taking full path. Any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Try

configurationProps.load(new FileInputStream("C:\\..."));

Using getResourceAsStream delegates to the ClassLoader and thus typically only works relative to the classpath. The rules for where it searches are given in the Javadoc for getResource()

private static Properties props = new Properties();
 ................
 .......................
 configurationProps.load(Test.class.getResourceAsStream("../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../C:\\someFilder\\test.properties"));