Java — How to delete a file or directory | Code Factory

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You’ll learn how to delete a file or directory in Java. The article demonstrates two ways of deleting a File -

• Delete file using Files.delete(Path) method of Java NIO
• Delete file using the delete() method of java.io.File class

Delete File using Java NIO’s Files.delete() (Recommended) — JDK 7+

package com.example.java.programming.file;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.DirectoryNotEmptyException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
/**
 * @author code.factory
 *
 */
public class DeleteFileExample {
	public static void main(String... args) {
		// File or Directory to be deleted
		Path path = Paths.get("folder/folder1/test.txt");
		try {
			// Delete file or directory
			Files.delete(path);
			System.out.println("File or directory deleted successfully");
		} catch (NoSuchFileException ex) {
			System.out.printf("No such file or directory: %s\n", path);
		} catch (DirectoryNotEmptyException ex) {
			System.out.printf("Directory %s is not empty\n", path);
		} catch (IOException ex) {
			System.out.println(ex);
		}
	}
}

Output :

File or directory deleted successfully

There is another method deleteIfExists(Path) that deletes the file, but it doesn’t throw an exception if the file doesn’t exist.

// Delete file or directory if it exists
boolean isDeleted = Files.deleteIfExists(path);
if(isDeleted) {
    System.out.println("File deleted successfully");
} else {
    System.out.println("File doesn't exist");
}

Delete File in Java using File.delete method — JDK 6

You can use the delete() method of java.io.File class to delete a file or directory. Here is an example:

package com.example.java.programming.file;
import java.io.File;
/**
 * @author code.factory
 *
 */
public class DeleteFileExample {
	public static void main(String... args) {
		// File to be deleted
		File file = new File("folder/folder1/test.txt");
		// Delete file
        boolean isDeleted = file.delete();
        if(isDeleted) {
            System.out.println("File deleted successfully");
        } else {
            System.out.println("File doesn't exist");
        }
	}
}

Output :

File deleted successfully