How to check if a given path is possible child of another path?

Question

I am trying to find if given path is possible child of another path using java. Both path may not exist.

Say c:\\Program Files\\My Company\\test\\My App

Answer 1

Old question but a pre-1.7 solution:

public boolean startsWith(String possibleRoot, String possibleChildOrSame) {
        String[] possiblePath = new File(possibleRoot).getAbsolutePath().replace('\\', '/').split("/");
        String[] possibleChildOrSamePath = new File(possibleChildOrSame).getAbsolutePath().replace('\\', '/').split("/");

        if (possibleChildOrSamePath.length < possiblePath.length) {
            return false;
        }

        // not ignoring case
        for (int i = 0; i < possiblePath.length; i++) {
            if (!possiblePath[i].equals(possibleChildOrSamePath[i])) {
                return false;
            }
        }
        return true;
}

For completeness the java 1.7+ solution:

public boolean startsWith(String possibleRoot, String possibleChildOrSame) {
        Path p1 = Paths.get(possibleChildOrSame).toAbsolutePath();
        Path p2 = Paths.get(possibleRoot).toAbsolutePath();
        return p1.startsWith(p2);
}