Java: startingPath as “public static final” exception

Question

[Updated, sorry about the change but now to the real problem] I cannot include try-catch-loop there for the exception from the method getCanonicalPath(). I trie

Answer 1

You can provide a static method to initialize your static variable:

public static final String startingPath = initPath();

private static String initPath() {
    try {
        return new File(".").getCanonicalPath();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Got I/O exception during initialization", e);
    }
}

Or you can initialize your variable in a static block:

public static final String startingPath;

static {
    try {
        startingPath = new File(".").getCanonicalPath();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Got I/O exception during initialization", e);
    }
}

EDIT: In this case your variable is static so there is no way to declare the exception thrown. Just for reference, if the variable is non-static you could do this by declaring the thrown exception in the constructor, like so:

public class PathHandler {

    private final String thePath = new File(".").getCanonicalPath();

    public PathHandler() throws IOException {
        // other initialization
    }