How to find files that match a wildcard string in Java

Question

This should be really simple  If I have a String like this      Test  sample  txt   then what is a generally-accepted way to get a list of files that match this pattern   e g  it should match    Test1 sample22b txt and    Test4 sample-spiffy txt but not    Test3 sample2 blah or    Test44 sample2 txt   I ve taken a look at org apache commons io filefilter WildcardFileFilter and it seems like the right beast but I m not sure how to use it for finding files in a relative directory path   I suppose I can look the source for ant since it uses wildcard syntax  but I must be missing something pretty obvious here    edit  the above example was just a sample case  I m looking for the way to parse general paths containing wildcards at runtime  I figured out how to do it based on mmyers  suggestion but it s kind of annoying  Not to mention that the java JRE seems to auto-parse simple wildcards in the main String   arguments  from a single argument to  save  me time and hassle    I m just glad I didn t have non-file arguments in the mix

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As posted in another answer  the wildcard library works for both glob and regex filename matching  http   code google com p wildcard   I used the following code to match glob patterns including absolute and relative on  nix style file systems    String filePattern   String baseDir            If absolute path  TODO handle windows absolute path  if  filePattern charAt 0     File separatorChar        baseDir   File separator      filePattern   filePattern substring 1     Paths paths   new Paths baseDir  filePattern   List files   paths getFiles      I spent some time trying to get the FileUtils listFiles methods in the Apache commons io library  see Vladimir s answer  to do this but had no success  I realise now think it can only handle pattern matching one directory or file at a time    Additionally  using regex filters  see Fabian s answer  for processing arbitrary user supplied absolute type glob patterns without searching the entire file system would require some preprocessing of the supplied glob to determine the largest non-regex glob prefix   Of course  Java 7 may handle the requested functionality nicely  but unfortunately I m stuck with Java 6 for now  The library is relatively minuscule at 13 5kb in size   Note to the reviewers  I attempted to add the above to the existing answer mentioning this library but the edit was rejected  I don t have enough rep to add this as a comment either  Isn t there a better way

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The wildcard library efficiently does both glob and regex filename matching   http   code google com p wildcard   The implementation is succinct -- JAR is only 12 9 kilobytes

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Implement the JDK FileVisitor interface  Here is an example http   wilddiary com list-files-matching-a-naming-pattern-java

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Might not help you right now  but JDK 7 is intended to have glob and regex file name matching as part of  More NIO Features

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You should be able to use the WildcardFileFilter  Just use System getProperty  user dir   to get the working directory  Try this   public static void main String   args    File   files    new File System getProperty  user dir     listFiles new WildcardFileFilter args              You should not need to replace   with       assuming wildcard filter uses java regex Pattern  I have not tested this  but I do use patterns and file filters constantly

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Why not use do something like   File myRelativeDir   new File        foo    String fullPath   myRelativeDir getCanonicalPath    Sting wildCard   fullPath   File separator      txt       now you have a fully qualified path   Then you won t have to worry about relative paths and can do your wildcarding as needed

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Since Java 8 you can use Files find method directly from java nio file   public static Stream lt Path gt  find Path start                                  int maxDepth                                  BiPredicate lt Path  BasicFileAttributes gt  matcher                                  FileVisitOption    options    Example usage  Files find startingPath             Integer MAX VALUE              path  basicFileAttributes  - gt  path toFile   getName   matches     pom

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Util Method   public static boolean isFileMatchTargetFilePattern final File f  final String targetPattern            String regex   targetPattern replace                 escape the dot first         regex   regex replace            replace                     return f getName   matches regex            jUnit Test    Test public void testIsFileMatchTargetFilePattern          String dir    D   repository  org my  modules  mobile  mobile-web  b1605 0 1       String   regexPatterns   new String        repositories      pom     -b1605 0 1     -b1605 0 1    mobile         File fDir   new File dir       File   files   fDir listFiles         for  String regexPattern   regexPatterns            System out println  match pattern      regexPattern                  for  File file   files                System out println   t    file getName       matches     FileUtils isFileMatchTargetFilePattern file  regexPattern                        Output   match pattern     repositories       mobile-web-b1605 0 1 pom matches false     mobile-web-b1605 0 1 war matches false      remote repositories matches true match pattern    pom       mobile-web-b1605 0 1 pom matches true     mobile-web-b1605 0 1 war matches false      remote repositories matches false match pattern   -b1605 0 1        mobile-web-b1605 0 1 pom matches true     mobile-web-b1605 0 1 war matches true      remote repositories matches false match pattern   -b1605 0 1       mobile-web-b1605 0 1 pom matches false     mobile-web-b1605 0 1 war matches false      remote repositories matches false match pattern  mobile        mobile-web-b1605 0 1 pom matches true     mobile-web-b1605 0 1 war matches true      remote repositories matches false

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The Apache filter is built for iterating files in a known directory  To allow wildcards in the directory also  you would have to split the path on     or     and do a filter on each part separately

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Simple Way without using any external import is  to use this method  I created csv files named with billing 201208 csv  billing 201209 csv  billing 201210 csv and it looks like working fine    Output will be the following if files listed above exists  found billing 201208 csv found billing 201209 csv found billing 201210 csv          Use Import - import java io File         public static void main String   args            String pathToScan                String target file       fileThatYouWantToFilter         File folderToScan   new File pathToScan         File   listOfFiles   folderToScan listFiles          for  int i   0  i  lt  listOfFiles length  i                  if  listOfFiles i  isFile                      target file   listOfFiles i  getName                    if  target file startsWith  billing                         amp  amp  target file endsWith   csv                        You can add these files to fileList by using  list add  here                      System out println  found          target file

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Consider DirectoryScanner from Apache Ant   DirectoryScanner scanner   new DirectoryScanner    scanner setIncludes new String         java     scanner setBasedir  C  Temp    scanner setCaseSensitive false   scanner scan    String   files   scanner getIncludedFiles      You ll need to reference ant jar    1 3 MB for ant 1 7 1

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Here are examples of listing files by pattern powered by Java 7 nio globbing and Java 8 lambdas       try  DirectoryStream lt Path gt  dirStream   Files newDirectoryStream              Paths get         Test  sample  txt              dirStream forEach path - gt  System out println path            or      PathMatcher pathMatcher   FileSystems getDefault            getPathMatcher  regex Test  sample  w    txt        try  DirectoryStream lt Path gt  dirStream   Files newDirectoryStream              new File       toPath    pathMatcher  matches             dirStream forEach path - gt  System out println path

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You could convert your wildcard string to a regular expression and use that with String s matches method  Following your example   String original       Test  sample  txt   String regex   original replace            replace                This works for your examples   Assert assertTrue     Test1 sample22b txt  matches regex    Assert assertTrue     Test4 sample-spiffy txt  matches regex      And counter-examples   Assert assertTrue      Test3 sample2 blah  matches regex    Assert assertTrue      Test44 sample2 txt  matches regex

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Try FileUtils from Apache commons-io  listFiles and iterateFiles methods    File dir   new File       FileFilter fileFilter   new WildcardFileFilter  sample  java    File   files   dir listFiles fileFilter   for  int i   0  i  lt  files length  i         System out println files i        To solve your issue with the TestX folders  I would first iterate through the list of folders   File   dirs   new File      listFiles new WildcardFileFilter  Test  java    for  int i 0  i lt dirs length  i         File dir   dirs i      if  dir isDirectory             File   files   dir listFiles new WildcardFileFilter  sample  java              Quite a  brute force  solution but should work fine   If this doesn t fit your needs  you can always use the RegexFileFilter

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Glob of Java7  Finding Files   Sample

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Path testPath   Paths get  C       Stream lt Path gt  stream                   Files find testPath  1                           path  basicFileAttributes  - gt                                File file   path toFile                                return file getName   endsWith   java                                    Print all files found stream forEach System out  println

[java] How to find files that match a wildcard string in Java?

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