java - When should I use File.separator and when File.pathSeparator?

Question

In the File class there are two strings, separator and pathSeparator.

What's the difference? When should I use one over the other?

Answer 1

If you mean File.separator and File.pathSeparator then:

• File.pathSeparator is used to separate individual file paths in a list of file paths. Consider on windows, the PATH environment variable. You use a ; to separate the file paths so on Windows File.pathSeparator would be ;.

• File.separator is either / or that is used to split up the path to a specific file. For example on Windows it is or C:DocumentsTest