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();
}

在撰写本文时(2010年6月)，这是唯一通过我的测试用例的解决方案。我不能保证这个解决方案没有错误，但是它确实通过了包含的测试用例。我所编写的方法和测试依赖于Apache公共IO中的FilenameUtils类。

该解决方案使用Java 1.4进行了测试。如果你正在使用Java 1.5(或更高版本)，你应该考虑用StringBuilder代替StringBuffer(如果你还在使用Java 1.4，你应该考虑换一个雇主)。

import java.io.File;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;

import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;

public class ResourceUtils {

    /**
     * Get the relative path from one file to another, specifying the directory separator. 
     * If one of the provided resources does not exist, it is assumed to be a file unless it ends with '/' or
     * '\'.
     * 
     * @param targetPath targetPath is calculated to this file
     * @param basePath basePath is calculated from this file
     * @param pathSeparator directory separator. The platform default is not assumed so that we can test Unix behaviour when running on Windows (for example)
     * @return
     */
    public static String getRelativePath(String targetPath, String basePath, String pathSeparator) {

        // Normalize the paths
        String normalizedTargetPath = FilenameUtils.normalizeNoEndSeparator(targetPath);
        String normalizedBasePath = FilenameUtils.normalizeNoEndSeparator(basePath);

        // Undo the changes to the separators made by normalization
        if (pathSeparator.equals("/")) {
            normalizedTargetPath = FilenameUtils.separatorsToUnix(normalizedTargetPath);
            normalizedBasePath = FilenameUtils.separatorsToUnix(normalizedBasePath);

        } else if (pathSeparator.equals("\\")) {
            normalizedTargetPath = FilenameUtils.separatorsToWindows(normalizedTargetPath);
            normalizedBasePath = FilenameUtils.separatorsToWindows(normalizedBasePath);

        } else {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unrecognised dir separator '" + pathSeparator + "'");
        }

        String[] base = normalizedBasePath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator));
        String[] target = normalizedTargetPath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator));

        // First get all the common elements. Store them as a string,
        // and also count how many of them there are.
        StringBuffer common = new StringBuffer();

        int commonIndex = 0;
        while (commonIndex < target.length && commonIndex < base.length
                && target[commonIndex].equals(base[commonIndex])) {
            common.append(target[commonIndex] + pathSeparator);
            commonIndex++;
        }

        if (commonIndex == 0) {
            // No single common path element. This most
            // likely indicates differing drive letters, like C: and D:.
            // These paths cannot be relativized.
            throw new PathResolutionException("No common path element found for '" + normalizedTargetPath + "' and '" + normalizedBasePath
                    + "'");
        }   

        // The number of directories we have to backtrack depends on whether the base is a file or a dir
        // For example, the relative path from
        //
        // /foo/bar/baz/gg/ff to /foo/bar/baz
        // 
        // ".." if ff is a file
        // "../.." if ff is a directory
        //
        // The following is a heuristic to figure out if the base refers to a file or dir. It's not perfect, because
        // the resource referred to by this path may not actually exist, but it's the best I can do
        boolean baseIsFile = true;

        File baseResource = new File(normalizedBasePath);

        if (baseResource.exists()) {
            baseIsFile = baseResource.isFile();

        } else if (basePath.endsWith(pathSeparator)) {
            baseIsFile = false;
        }

        StringBuffer relative = new StringBuffer();

        if (base.length != commonIndex) {
            int numDirsUp = baseIsFile ? base.length - commonIndex - 1 : base.length - commonIndex;

            for (int i = 0; i < numDirsUp; i++) {
                relative.append(".." + pathSeparator);
            }
        }
        relative.append(normalizedTargetPath.substring(common.length()));
        return relative.toString();
    }


    static class PathResolutionException extends RuntimeException {
        PathResolutionException(String msg) {
            super(msg);
        }
    }    
}

这个通过的测试用例是

public void testGetRelativePathsUnix() {
    assertEquals("stuff/xyz.dat", ResourceUtils.getRelativePath("/var/data/stuff/xyz.dat", "/var/data/", "/"));
    assertEquals("../../b/c", ResourceUtils.getRelativePath("/a/b/c", "/a/x/y/", "/"));
    assertEquals("../../b/c", ResourceUtils.getRelativePath("/m/n/o/a/b/c", "/m/n/o/a/x/y/", "/"));
}

public void testGetRelativePathFileToFile() {
    String target = "C:\\Windows\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf";
    String base = "C:\\Windows\\Speech\\Common\\sapisvr.exe";

    String relPath = ResourceUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals("..\\..\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf", relPath);
}

public void testGetRelativePathDirectoryToFile() {
    String target = "C:\\Windows\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf";
    String base = "C:\\Windows\\Speech\\Common\\";

    String relPath = ResourceUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals("..\\..\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf", relPath);
}

public void testGetRelativePathFileToDirectory() {
    String target = "C:\\Windows\\Boot\\Fonts";
    String base = "C:\\Windows\\Speech\\Common\\foo.txt";

    String relPath = ResourceUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals("..\\..\\Boot\\Fonts", relPath);
}

public void testGetRelativePathDirectoryToDirectory() {
    String target = "C:\\Windows\\Boot\\";
    String base = "C:\\Windows\\Speech\\Common\\";
    String expected = "..\\..\\Boot";

    String relPath = ResourceUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals(expected, relPath);
}

public void testGetRelativePathDifferentDriveLetters() {
    String target = "D:\\sources\\recovery\\RecEnv.exe";
    String base = "C:\\Java\\workspace\\AcceptanceTests\\Standard test data\\geo\\";

    try {
        ResourceUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
        fail();

    } catch (PathResolutionException ex) {
        // expected exception
    }
}

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()));

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();
}

在另一个答案中提到的错误是由Apache HttpComponents中的URIUtils解决的

public static URI resolve(URI baseURI,
                          String reference)

对象的URI引用 基本URI。解决bug的方法 java.net.URI ()

下面是一个从基本路径解析相对路径的方法，不管它们在相同或不同的根路径中:

public static String GetRelativePath(String path, String base){

    final String SEP = "/";

    // if base is not a directory -> return empty
    if (!base.endsWith(SEP)){
        return "";
    }

    // check if path is a file -> remove last "/" at the end of the method
    boolean isfile = !path.endsWith(SEP);

    // get URIs and split them by using the separator
    String a = "";
    String b = "";
    try {
        a = new File(base).getCanonicalFile().toURI().getPath();
        b = new File(path).getCanonicalFile().toURI().getPath();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    String[] basePaths = a.split(SEP);
    String[] otherPaths = b.split(SEP);

    // check common part
    int n = 0;
    for(; n < basePaths.length && n < otherPaths.length; n ++)
    {
        if( basePaths[n].equals(otherPaths[n]) == false )
            break;
    }

    // compose the new path
    StringBuffer tmp = new StringBuffer("");
    for(int m = n; m < basePaths.length; m ++)
        tmp.append(".."+SEP);
    for(int m = n; m < otherPaths.length; m ++)
    {
        tmp.append(otherPaths[m]);
        tmp.append(SEP);
    }

    // get path string
    String result = tmp.toString();

    // remove last "/" if path is a file
    if (isfile && result.endsWith(SEP)){
        result = result.substring(0,result.length()-1);
    }

    return result;
}