Java Servlet getContextPath Gotcha

When programming Java servlets and building display code, the context path of the application is often required. From the JSTL ${pageContext.request.contextPath} it might appear that it is a simple matter of using pageContext.getRequest().getContextPath(). There is a bit of a gotcha here though, as pageContext.getRequest() by default returns an object of type ServletRequest and not HttpServletRequest, which is what you need. Casting to the correct type fixes the issue:

String myContextPath = ((HttpServletRequest)pageContext.getRequest()).getContextPath();