How to construct a relative path in Java from two absolute paths (or URLs)?

Question

Given two absolute paths, e.g.

/var/data/stuff/xyz.dat
/var/data

How can one create a relative path that uses the second path as its base?

Answer 1

org.apache.ant has a FileUtils class with a getRelativePath method. Haven't tried it myself yet, but could be worthwhile to check it out.

http://javadoc.haefelinger.it/org.apache.ant/1.7.1/org/apache/tools/ant/util/FileUtils.html#getRelativePath(java.io.File, java.io.File)