Netbeans how to set command line arguments in Java

1. Create the Java code that can receive an argument as a command line argument.

   class TestCode{
       public static void main(String args[]){
           System.out.println("first argument is: "+args[0]);
       }
   }
   

2. Run the program without arguments (press F6).

3. In the Output window, at the bottom, click the double yellow arrow (or the yellow button) to open a Run dialog.

4. If the argument you need to pass is testArgument, then here in this window pass the argument as application.args=testArgument.

This will give the output as follows in the same Output window:

first argument is: testArgument

For Maven, the instructions are similar, but change the exec.args property instead:

exec.args=-classpath %classpath package.ClassName PARAM1 PARAM2 PARAM3

Note: Use single quotes for string parameters that contain spaces.

If it's a Maven project then Netbeans is running your application using the exec-maven-plugin so you'll need to append your options onto the existing exec.args property found in the Run Maven dialog. This dialog can be accessed from the the Output window by pressing the yellow double arrow icon.

I am guessing that you are running the file using Run | Run File (or shift-F6) rather than Run | Run Main Project. The NetBeans 7.1 help file (F1 is your friend!) states for the Arguments parameter:

Add arguments to pass to the main class during application execution. Note that arguments cannot be passed to individual files.

I verified this with a little snippet of code:

public class Junk
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        for (String s : args)
            System.out.println("arg -> " + s);
    }
}

I set Run -> Arguments to x y z. When I ran the file by itself I got no output. When I ran the project the output was:

arg -> x
arg -> y
arg -> z

For a Maven project using NetBeans 8.x:

1. Click Run >> Set Project Configuration >> Customise
2. Select Actions
3. Select Run file via main()
4. Set name/value pair to include the arguments.
5. Click OK

An example name/value pair might resemble:

javax.persistence.jdbc.password=PASSWORD

Then run your project:

1. Open and focus the Java class that includes main(...).
2. Press F6 to run the program.

The command line parameters should appear in the Run window.

Note that to obtain the value form with the program, use System.getProperty().

Additional actions for Test file, Run project, and other ways to run the application can have arguments defined. Repeat the steps above for the different actions to accomplish this task.