Java: how to get a File from an escaped URL?

Question

I\'m receiving an URL that locates a local file (the fact that I receive an URL is not in my control). The URL is escaped validly as defined in RFC2396. How can I transfor

Answer 1

The File constructor taking an URI in combination with URL#toURI() should work:

URL url = getItSomehow();
File file = new File(url.toURI());

Answer 2

AFAIK like this Paths.get(url.toURI()).toFile() is best, starting with Java 7. See also Converting Java file:// URL to File(...) path, platform independent, including UNC paths.

Answer 3

URLDecoder.decode(url);//deprecated
URLDecoder.decode(url, "UTF-8"); //use this instead

See related question How do you unescape URLs in Java?