title: InputStream is null
body: <p>In a program I'm working on I have</p>
  
  <pre><code>String cwd;
  String file_separator;
  
  public ConfigLoader()
  {
      cwd = get_cwd();
      file_separator = get_file_separator();
  
      try
      {
          Properties c = new Properties();
  
          InputStream in = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(cwd + 
              file_separator + "data" + file_separator + "configuration.properties");
  
          c.load(in);
      }
      except (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); }
  }
  
  public String get_file_separator()
  {
      File f = new File("");
      return f.separator;
  }
  
  public String get_cwd()
  {
      File cwd = new File("");
      return cwd.getAbsolutePath();
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>For some reason, though, <code>c.load(in);</code> causes a <code>NullPointerException</code>. The exception comes from <code>in == NULL</code> being true. I can't figure out why because</p>
  
  <pre><code>System.out.println(cwd + file_separator + "data" + file_separator +
      "configuration.properties");
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>prints </p>
  
  <pre><code>/users/labnet/st10/jjb127/workspace/Brewer-Client/data/configuration.properties
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which is the location of the file I'm wanting to use.</p>
  
  <p>Thoughts?</p>