How to delete directory content in Java

Question

After enumerating a directory  I now need to delete all the files   I used    final File   files   outputFolder listFiles    files delete      But this hasn t deleted the directory

User · Answer

You can t delete on an array   This should work better    for  File f   files  f delete      But it won t work if the folders are not empty  For this cases  you will need to recursively descend into the folder hierarchy and delete everything  Yes it s a shame Java can t do that by default

User · Answer

To delete folder having files  no need of loops or recursive search  You can directly use  FileUtils deleteDirectory  lt File object of directory gt     This function will directory delete the folder and all files in it

User · Answer

Here is one possible solution to solve the problem without a library    public static boolean delete File file         File   flist   null       if file    null           return false             if  file isFile              return file delete               if   file isDirectory              return false             flist   file listFiles        if  flist    null  amp  amp  flist length  gt  0            for  File f   flist                if   delete f                     return false                                     return file delete

User · Answer

You have to do this for each File   public static void deleteFolder File folder        File   files   folder listFiles        if files  null      some JVMs return null for empty dirs         for File f  files                if f isDirectory                      deleteFolder f                 else                   f delete                                      folder delete        Then call  deleteFolder outputFolder

User · Answer

You can t delete an File array  As all of the other answers suggest  you must delete each individual file before deleting the folder     final File   files   outputFolder listFiles    for  File f  files  f delete    outputFolder delete

User · Answer

for File f   files        f delete          files delete       will work

User · Answer

All files must be delete from the directory before it is deleted   There are third party libraries that have a lot of common utilities  including ones that does that for you    Apache commons-lang FileUtils forceDelete     guava Files deleteRecursively

User · Answer

Use FileUtils with FileUtils deleteDirectory

[java] How to delete directory content in Java?

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