How to delete a folder with files using Java

Question

I want to create and delete a directory using Java, but it isn't working.

File index = new File("/home/Work/Indexer1");
if (!index.exists()) {
    index.mkdir();
} else {
    index.delete();
    if (!index.exists()) {
        index.mkdir();
    }
}

Answer 1

In this

index.delete();

            if (!index.exists())
               {
                   index.mkdir();
               }

you are calling

 if (!index.exists())
                   {
                       index.mkdir();
                   }

after

index.delete();

This means that you are creating the file again after deleting File.delete() returns a boolean value.So if you want to check then do System.out.println(index.delete()); if you get true then this means that file is deleted

File index = new File("/home/Work/Indexer1");
    if (!index.exists())
       {
             index.mkdir();
       }
    else{
            System.out.println(index.delete());//If you get true then file is deleted




            if (!index.exists())
               {
                   index.mkdir();// here you are creating again after deleting the file
               }




        }

from the comments given below,the updated answer is like this

File f=new File("full_path");//full path like c:/home/ri
    if(f.exists())
    {
        f.delete();
    }
    else
    {
        try {
            //f.createNewFile();//this will create a file
            f.mkdir();//this create a folder
        } catch (Exception e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

Answer 2

If you have subfolders, you will find troubles with the Cemron answers. so you should create a method that works like this:

private void deleteTempFile(File tempFile) {
        try
        {
            if(tempFile.isDirectory()){
               File[] entries = tempFile.listFiles();
               for(File currentFile: entries){
                   deleteTempFile(currentFile);
               }
               tempFile.delete();
            }else{
               tempFile.delete();
            }
        getLogger().info("DELETED Temporal File: " + tempFile.getPath());
        }
        catch(Throwable t)
        {
            getLogger().error("Could not DELETE file: " + tempFile.getPath(), t);
        }
    }

Answer 3

you can try as follows

  File dir = new File("path");
   if (dir.isDirectory())
   {
         dir.delete();
   }

If there are sub folders inside your folder you may need to recursively delete them.

Answer 4

        import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;

        List<String> directory =  new ArrayList(); 
        directory.add("test-output"); 
        directory.add("Reports/executions"); 
        directory.add("Reports/index.html"); 
        directory.add("Reports/report.properties"); 
        for(int count = 0 ; count < directory.size() ; count ++)
        {
        String destination = directory.get(count);
        deleteDirectory(destination);
        }





      public void deleteDirectory(String path) {

        File file  = new File(path);
        if(file.isDirectory()){
             System.out.println("Deleting Directory :" + path);
            try {
                FileUtils.deleteDirectory(new File(path)); //deletes the whole folder
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        else {
        System.out.println("Deleting File :" + path);
            //it is a simple file. Proceed for deletion
            file.delete();
        }

    }

Works like a Charm . For both folder and files . Salam :)

Answer 5

I like this solution the most. It does not use 3rd party library, instead it uses NIO2 of Java 7.

/**
 * Deletes Folder with all of its content
 *
 * @param folder path to folder which should be deleted
 */
public static void deleteFolderAndItsContent(final Path folder) throws IOException {
    Files.walkFileTree(folder, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>() {
        @Override
        public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file, BasicFileAttributes attrs) throws IOException {
            Files.delete(file);
            return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
        }

        @Override
        public FileVisitResult postVisitDirectory(Path dir, IOException exc) throws IOException {
            if (exc != null) {
                throw exc;
            }
            Files.delete(dir);
            return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
        }
    });
}

Answer 6

directry cannot simply delete if it has the files so you may need to delete the files inside first and then directory

public class DeleteFileFolder {

public DeleteFileFolder(String path) {

    File file = new File(path);
    if(file.exists())
    {
        do{
            delete(file);
        }while(file.exists());
    }else
    {
        System.out.println("File or Folder not found : "+path);
    }

}
private void delete(File file)
{
    if(file.isDirectory())
    {
        String fileList[] = file.list();
        if(fileList.length == 0)
        {
            System.out.println("Deleting Directory : "+file.getPath());
            file.delete();
        }else
        {
            int size = fileList.length;
            for(int i = 0 ; i < size ; i++)
            {
                String fileName = fileList[i];
                System.out.println("File path : "+file.getPath()+" and name :"+fileName);
                String fullPath = file.getPath()+"/"+fileName;
                File fileOrFolder = new File(fullPath);
                System.out.println("Full Path :"+fileOrFolder.getPath());
                delete(fileOrFolder);
            }
        }
    }else
    {
        System.out.println("Deleting file : "+file.getPath());
        file.delete();
    }
}