Invalid escape sequence (valid ones are \\b \\t \\n \\f \\r \\\" \\' \\\\ )

Question

I am trying to read a file into my Java program using java.util.Scanner and I get the above message when I enter the code below (I am new to java) - can anyone help? (I looked at a similar message someone got with their own code, but it was too complex for me to use in my example!). I have Windows 7.

BufferedReader job = new BufferedReader
               (new FileReader("\My Documents\JOBS\newfile.txt"));

Answer 1

You need to escape the "\" in the file path.

BufferedReader job = new BufferedReader 
               (new FileReader("\\My Documents\\JOBS\\newfile.txt"));

Answer 2

\ is an escape character, use \\

Answer 3

If you're using eclipse, there's a setting that inserts escape chars automatically when pasting:

Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Typing -> In String Literals -> Escape text when pasting into a string literal

Then, when something like D:\Env\Images\image1.png is in your clipboard and you paste it into eclipse, it'll automatically look like this: D:\\Env\\Images\\image1.png