How to create a project from existing source in Eclipse and then find it?

Question

I have created several .java files. All of them are located in one directory. I used a text editor to write these files. Now I want to switch to Eclipse. How can I do it? I have tried many ways. None of them works.

I think the common way is to have source in the eclipse folder called "workspace". So, how do I get my files in these directory. Should I use eclipse to create a new project from existing source and Eclipse will put all file to the workspace? Or I should manually copy all my files to the workspace? Where should I put my class files than? Should I create a subdirectory? With which name?

When I try to create a project with name "game", the eclipse writes me that a project with such name already exist. But how can I open this project?

In my "workspace" I have created a subdirectory called "game". I copied all my .java file into this subdirectory. Then with Eclipse I created a new project with the name game. As a result, Eclipse created .classpath and .project files in the directory "game". It also created bin and src subdirectories. And now I think it is not the correct way to go. The source files are supposed to be in the "src" directory. Right? And at the moment all my .java files are in the "workspace\game".

I did it other way around. With Eclipse I have created a new project with the name "game". As the result, Eclipse created a folder called "game" into folder "workspace". In "game" the folder I found "src" folder. I copied all my .java files into this folder. But now in the "Package Explorer" I cannot open "src" folder. So, how can I access my source files from Eclipse? Why Eclipse does not want to open the "src" folder?

Answer 1

Easiest Method:

1. Put all source files into one directory named after your project. i.e. "ProjectName" You can keep this directory in your workspace or it can be somewhere else.
2. Start a new project in eclipse and name it using that same project name.
3. Uncheck the "use default location" box and find the directory where your project is unless your project is already in the workspace - then you must not uncheck the "use default location" box
4. Click 'next'.

Eclipse should be smart enough to figure out what's going on. After clicking next, it will show you all of the files it found in that directory. It will just automatically add those files to your project. Voilà!