我的版本大致基于马特和史蒂夫的版本:

/**
 * Returns the path of one File relative to another.
 *
 * @param target the target directory
 * @param base the base directory
 * @return target's path relative to the base directory
 * @throws IOException if an error occurs while resolving the files' canonical names
 */
 public static File getRelativeFile(File target, File base) throws IOException
 {
   String[] baseComponents = base.getCanonicalPath().split(Pattern.quote(File.separator));
   String[] targetComponents = target.getCanonicalPath().split(Pattern.quote(File.separator));

   // skip common components
   int index = 0;
   for (; index < targetComponents.length && index < baseComponents.length; ++index)
   {
     if (!targetComponents[index].equals(baseComponents[index]))
       break;
   }

   StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
   if (index != baseComponents.length)
   {
     // backtrack to base directory
     for (int i = index; i < baseComponents.length; ++i)
       result.append(".." + File.separator);
   }
   for (; index < targetComponents.length; ++index)
     result.append(targetComponents[index] + File.separator);
   if (!target.getPath().endsWith("/") && !target.getPath().endsWith("\\"))
   {
     // remove final path separator
     result.delete(result.length() - File.separator.length(), result.length());
   }
   return new File(result.toString());
 }

酷! !我需要一些类似这样的代码，但用于比较Linux机器上的目录路径。我发现这在父目录为目标的情况下不起作用。

下面是该方法的目录友好版本:

 public static String getRelativePath(String targetPath, String basePath, 
     String pathSeparator) {

 boolean isDir = false;
 {
   File f = new File(targetPath);
   isDir = f.isDirectory();
 }
 //  We need the -1 argument to split to make sure we get a trailing 
 //  "" token if the base ends in the path separator and is therefore
 //  a directory. We require directory paths to end in the path
 //  separator -- otherwise they are indistinguishable from files.
 String[] base = basePath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator), -1);
 String[] target = targetPath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator), 0);

 //  First get all the common elements. Store them as a string,
 //  and also count how many of them there are. 
 String common = "";
 int commonIndex = 0;
 for (int i = 0; i < target.length && i < base.length; i++) {
     if (target[i].equals(base[i])) {
         common += target[i] + pathSeparator;
         commonIndex++;
     }
     else break;
 }

 if (commonIndex == 0)
 {
     //  Whoops -- not even a single common path element. This most
     //  likely indicates differing drive letters, like C: and D:. 
     //  These paths cannot be relativized. Return the target path.
     return targetPath;
     //  This should never happen when all absolute paths
     //  begin with / as in *nix. 
 }

 String relative = "";
 if (base.length == commonIndex) {
     //  Comment this out if you prefer that a relative path not start with ./
     relative = "." + pathSeparator;
 }
 else {
     int numDirsUp = base.length - commonIndex - (isDir?0:1); /* only subtract 1 if it  is a file. */
     //  The number of directories we have to backtrack is the length of 
     //  the base path MINUS the number of common path elements, minus
     //  one because the last element in the path isn't a directory.
     for (int i = 1; i <= (numDirsUp); i++) {
         relative += ".." + pathSeparator;
     }
 }
 //if we are comparing directories then we 
 if (targetPath.length() > common.length()) {
  //it's OK, it isn't a directory
  relative += targetPath.substring(common.length());
 }

 return relative;
}

这有点迂回，但为什么不使用URI呢?它有一个相对化方法可以帮你做所有必要的检查。

String path = "/var/data/stuff/xyz.dat";
String base = "/var/data";
String relative = new File(base).toURI().relativize(new File(path).toURI()).getPath();
// relative == "stuff/xyz.dat"

请注意文件路径是java.nio.file。正如@Jirka Meluzin在另一个答案中指出的那样，自Java 1.7以来，路径#相对化。

我知道这有点晚了，但是，我创建了一个解决方案，适用于任何java版本。

    public static String getRealtivePath(File root, File file) 
    {
        String path = file.getPath();
        String rootPath = root.getPath();
        boolean plus1 = path.contains(File.separator);
        return path.substring(path.indexOf(rootPath) + rootPath.length() + (plus1 ? 1 : 0));
    }

private String relative(String left, String right){
    String[] lefts = left.split("/");
    String[] rights = right.split("/");
    int min = Math.min(lefts.length, rights.length);
    int commonIdx = -1;
    for(int i = 0; i < min; i++){
        if(commonIdx < 0 && !lefts[i].equals(rights[i])){
            commonIdx = i - 1;
            break;
        }
    }
    if(commonIdx < 0){
        return null;
    }
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(Math.max(left.length(), right.length()));
    sb.append(left).append("/");
    for(int i = commonIdx + 1; i < lefts.length;i++){
        sb.append("../");
    }
    for(int i = commonIdx + 1; i < rights.length;i++){
        sb.append(rights[i]).append("/");
    }

    return sb.deleteCharAt(sb.length() -1).toString();
}

如果你知道第二个字符串是第一个字符串的一部分:

String s1 = "/var/data/stuff/xyz.dat";
String s2 = "/var/data";
String s3 = s1.substring(s2.length());

或者，如果你真的想把句号放在开头，就像你的例子中那样:

String s3 = ".".concat(s1.substring(s2.length()));