Java Files, Java File Handling, Java Create and Write to a file, Read a File, Delete a File

Java Files

File handling is an important part of any application.

Java has several methods for creating, reading, updating, and deleting files.

Java File Handling

The File class from the java.io package, allows us to work with files.

To use the File class, create an object of the class, and specify the filename or directory name:

Example

import java.io.File;  // Import the File class
File myObj = new File("filename.txt"); // Specify the filename

Java Create and Write To Files

Create a File

To create a file in Java, you can use the createNewFile() method. This method returns a boolean value: true if the file was successfully created, and false if the file already exists. Note that the method is enclosed in a try...catch block. This is necessary because it throws an IOException if an error occurs (if the file cannot be created for some reason):

Example

import java.io.File;  // Import the File class
import java.io.IOException;  // Import the IOException class to handle errors
public class CreateFile {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      File myObj = new File("filename.txt");
      if (myObj.createNewFile()) {
        System.out.println("File created: " + myObj.getName());
      } else {
        System.out.println("File already exists.");
      }
    } catch (IOException e) {
      System.out.println("An error occurred.");
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

The output will be:

File created: filename.txt

To create a file in a specific directory (requires permission), specify the path of the file and use double backslashes to escape the “\" character (for Windows). On Mac and Linux you can just write the path, like: /Users/name/filename.txt

Example

File myObj = new File("C:\\Users\\MyName\\filename.txt");

Write To a File

In the following example, we use the FileWriter class together with its write() method to write some text to the file we created in the example above. Note that when you are done writing to the file, you should close it with the close() method:

Example

import java.io.FileWriter;   // Import the FileWriter class
import java.io.IOException;  // Import the IOException class to handle errors
public class WriteToFile {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      FileWriter myWriter = new FileWriter("filename.txt");
      myWriter.write("Files in Java might be tricky, but it is fun enough!");
      myWriter.close();
      System.out.println("Successfully wrote to the file.");
    } catch (IOException e) {
      System.out.println("An error occurred.");
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

The output will be:

Successfully wrote to the file.

Read a File

In the following example, we use the Scanner class to read the contents of the text file we created.

Example

import java.io.File;  // Import the File class
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;  // Import this class to handle errors
import java.util.Scanner; // Import the Scanner class to read text files
public class ReadFile {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      File myObj = new File("filename.txt");
      Scanner myReader = new Scanner(myObj);
      while (myReader.hasNextLine()) {
        String data = myReader.nextLine();
        System.out.println(data);
      }
      myReader.close();
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
      System.out.println("An error occurred.");
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

The output will be:

Files in Java might be tricky, but it is fun enough!

Example

import java.io.File;  // Import the File class
public class GetFileInfo { 
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    File myObj = new File("filename.txt");
    if (myObj.exists()) {
      System.out.println("File name: " + myObj.getName());
      System.out.println("Absolute path: " + myObj.getAbsolutePath());
      System.out.println("Writeable: " + myObj.canWrite());
      System.out.println("Readable " + myObj.canRead());
      System.out.println("File size in bytes " + myObj.length());
    } else {
      System.out.println("The file does not exist.");
    }
  }
}

The output will be:

File name: filename.txt
Absolute path: C:\Users\MyName\filename.txt
Writeable: true
Readable: true
File size in bytes: 0

Note: There are many available classes in the Java API that can be used to read and write files in Java: FileReader, BufferedReader, Files, Scanner, FileInputStream, FileWriter, BufferedWriter, FileOutputStream, etc. Which one to use depends on the Java version you're working with and whether you need to read bytes or characters, and the size of the file/lines etc.

Delete a File

To delete a file in Java, use the delete() method:

Example

import java.io.File;  // Import the File class
public class DeleteFile {
  public static void main(String[] args) { 
    File myObj = new File("filename.txt"); 
    if (myObj.delete()) { 
      System.out.println("Deleted the file: " + myObj.getName());
    } else {
      System.out.println("Failed to delete the file.");
    } 
  } 
}

The output will be:

Deleted the file: filename.txt

Delete a Folder

You can also delete a folder. However, it must be empty:

Example

import java.io.File; 
public class DeleteFolder {
  public static void main(String[] args) { 
    File myObj = new File("C:\\Users\\MyName\\Test"); 
    if (myObj.delete()) { 
      System.out.println("Deleted the folder: " + myObj.getName());
    } else {
      System.out.println("Failed to delete the folder.");
    } 
  } 
}

The output will be:

Deleted the folder: Test