How do I create a file and write to it in Java?

Question

What's the simplest way to create and write to a (text) file in Java?

Answer 1

If you wish to have a relatively pain-free experience you can also have a look at the Apache Commons IO package, more specifically the FileUtils class.

Never forget to check third-party libraries. Joda-Time for date manipulation, Apache Commons Lang StringUtils for common string operations and such can make your code more readable.

Java is a great language, but the standard library is sometimes a bit low-level. Powerful, but low-level nonetheless.

Answer 2

To create file without overwriting existing file:

System.out.println("Choose folder to create file");
JFileChooser c = new JFileChooser();
c.setFileSelectionMode(JFileChooser.DIRECTORIES_ONLY);
c.showOpenDialog(c);
c.getSelectedFile();
f = c.getSelectedFile(); // File f - global variable
String newfile = f + "\\hi.doc";//.txt or .doc or .html
File file = new File(newfile);

try {
    //System.out.println(f);
    boolean flag = file.createNewFile();

    if(flag == true) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(rootPane, "File created successfully");
    }
    else {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(rootPane, "File already exists");
    }
    /* Or use exists() function as follows:
        if(file.exists() == true) {
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(rootPane, "File already exists");
        }
        else {
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(rootPane, "File created successfully");
        }
    */
}
catch(Exception e) {
    // Any exception handling method of your choice
}

Answer 3

package fileoperations;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

public class SimpleFile {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        File file =new File("text.txt");
        file.createNewFile();
        System.out.println("File is created");
        FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file);

        // Writes the content to the file
        writer.write("Enter the text that you want to write"); 
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();
        System.out.println("Data is entered into file");
    }
}

Answer 4

Reading collection with customers and saving to file, with JFilechooser.

private void writeFile(){

    JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser(this.PATH);
    int retValue = fileChooser.showDialog(this, "Save File");

    if (retValue == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION){

        try (Writer fileWrite = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(fileChooser.getSelectedFile())))){

            this.customers.forEach((c) ->{
                try{
                    fileWrite.append(c.toString()).append("\n");
                }
                catch (IOException ex){
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            });
        }
        catch (IOException e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

Note that each of the code samples below may throw IOException. Try/catch/finally blocks have been omitted for brevity. See this tutorial for information about exception handling.

Note that each of the code samples below will overwrite the file if it already exists

Creating a text file:

PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter("the-file-name.txt", "UTF-8");
writer.println("The first line");
writer.println("The second line");
writer.close();

Creating a binary file:

byte data[] = ...
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("the-file-name");
out.write(data);
out.close();

Java 7+ users can use the Files class to write to files:

Creating a text file:

List<String> lines = Arrays.asList("The first line", "The second line");
Path file = Paths.get("the-file-name.txt");
Files.write(file, lines, Charset.forName("UTF-8"));
//Files.write(file, lines, Charset.forName("UTF-8"), StandardOpenOption.APPEND);

Creating a binary file:

byte data[] = ...
Path file = Paths.get("the-file-name");
Files.write(file, data);
//Files.write(file, data, StandardOpenOption.APPEND);

Answer 6

If you for some reason want to separate the act of creating and writing, the Java equivalent of touch is

try {
   //create a file named "testfile.txt" in the current working directory
   File myFile = new File("testfile.txt");
   if ( myFile.createNewFile() ) {
      System.out.println("Success!");
   } else {
      System.out.println("Failure!");
   }
} catch ( IOException ioe ) { ioe.printStackTrace(); }

createNewFile() does an existence check and file create atomically. This can be useful if you want to ensure you were the creator of the file before writing to it, for example.