How to delete a folder with files using Java

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();
    }
}

Just a one-liner.

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;

FileUtils.deleteDirectory(new File(destination));

Documentation here

Java isn't able to delete folders with data in it. You have to delete all files before deleting the folder.

Use something like:

String[]entries = index.list();
for(String s: entries){
    File currentFile = new File(index.getPath(),s);
    currentFile.delete();
}

Then you should be able to delete the folder by using index.delete() Untested!

This works, and while it looks inefficient to skip the directory test, it's not: the test happens right away in listFiles().

void deleteDir(File file) {
	File[] contents = file.listFiles();
	if (contents != null) {
        for (File f : contents) {
            deleteDir(f);
        }
	}
    file.delete();
}

Update, to avoid following symbolic links:

void deleteDir(File file) {
    File[] contents = file.listFiles();
    if (contents != null) {
        for (File f : contents) {
        	if (! Files.isSymbolicLink(f.toPath())) {
        		deleteDir(f);
        	}
        }
    }
    file.delete();
}

I prefer this solution on java 8:

  Files.walk(pathToBeDeleted)
    .sorted(Comparator.reverseOrder())
    .map(Path::toFile)
    .forEach(File::delete);

From this site: http://www.baeldung.com/java-delete-directory

In JDK 7 you could use Files.walkFileTree() and Files.deleteIfExists() to delete a tree of files. (Sample: http://fahdshariff.blogspot.ru/2011/08/java-7-deleting-directory-by-walking.html)

In JDK 6 one possible way is to use FileUtils.deleteQuietly from Apache Commons which will remove a file, a directory, or a directory with files and sub-directories.

Using Apache Commons-IO, it is following one-liner:

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;

FileUtils.forceDelete(new File(destination));

This is (slightly) more performant than FileUtils.deleteDirectory.

As mentioned, Java is unable to delete a folder containing files, so first delete the files and then the folder.

Here's a simple example to do this:

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;



// First, remove files from into the folder 
FileUtils.cleanDirectory(folder/path);

// Then, remove the folder
FileUtils.deleteDirectory(folder/path);

Or:

FileUtils.forceDelete(new File(destination));

One more choice is to use Spring's org.springframework.util.FileSystemUtils relevant method which will recursively delete all content of the directory.

File directoryToDelete = new File(<your_directory_path_to_delete>);
FileSystemUtils.deleteRecursively(directoryToDelete);

That will do the job!

My basic recursive version, working with older versions of JDK:

public static void deleteFile(File element) {
    if (element.isDirectory()) {
        for (File sub : element.listFiles()) {
            deleteFile(sub);
        }
    }
    element.delete();
}

This is the best solution for Java 7+:

public static void deleteDirectory(String directoryFilePath) throws IOException
{
	Path directory = Paths.get(directoryFilePath);

	if (Files.exists(directory))
	{
		Files.walkFileTree(directory, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>()
		{
			@Override
			public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path path, BasicFileAttributes basicFileAttributes) throws IOException
			{
				Files.delete(path);
				return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
			}

			@Override
			public FileVisitResult postVisitDirectory(Path directory, IOException ioException) throws IOException
			{
				Files.delete(directory);
				return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
			}
		});
	}
}

Guava 21+ to the rescue. Use only if there are no symlinks pointing out of the directory to delete.

com.google.common.io.MoreFiles.deleteRecursively(
      file.toPath(),
      RecursiveDeleteOption.ALLOW_INSECURE
) ;

(This question is well-indexed by Google, so other people usig Guava might be happy to find this answer, even if it is redundant with other answers elsewhere.)

I like this solution the most. It does not use 3rd party library, instead it uses [NIO2][1] 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;
        }
    });
}

[1]: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/io/fileio.html "NIO2"

You can try this

public static void deleteDir(File dirFile) {
    if (dirFile.isDirectory()) {
        File[] dirs = dirFile.listFiles();
        for (File dir: dirs) {
            deleteDir(dir);
        }
    }
    dirFile.delete();
}

2020 here :)

With Apache commons io FileUtils, contrary to the "pure" Java variants a folder does not need to be empty to be deleted. To give you a better overview I list the variants here, the following 3 may throw exceptions for various reasons:

• cleanDirectory: Cleans a directory without deleting it
• forceDelete: Deletes a file. If file is a directory, delete it and all sub-directories
• forceDeleteOnExit: Schedules a file to be deleted when JVM exits. If file is directory delete it and all sub-directories. Not recommended for running servers as JVM may not exit any time soon ...

The following variant never throws exceptions (even if the file is null !)

• deleteQuietly: Deletes a file, never throwing an exception. If it is a directory, delete it and all sub-directories.

One more thing to know is dealing with symbolic links, it will delete the symbolic link and not the target folder... be careful.

Also keep in mind that deleting a large file or folder can be a blocking operation for a good while ... so if you do not mind having it run async do it (in a background thread via executor for example).

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();
		}
	}

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);
		}
	}

You can use FileUtils.deleteDirectory. JAVA can't delete the non-empty foldres with File.delete().

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();
    }
}

we can use the spring-core dependency;

boolean result = FileSystemUtils.deleteRecursively(file);

Most of answers (even recent) referencing JDK classes rely on File.delete() but that is a flawed API as the operation may fail silently.
The java.io.File.delete() method documentation states :

> Note that the java.nio.file.Files class defines the delete method to > throw an IOException when a file cannot be deleted. This is useful for > error reporting and to diagnose why a file cannot be deleted.

As replacement, you should favor Files.delete(Path p) that throws an IOException with a error message.

The actual code could be written such as :

Path index = Paths.get("/home/Work/Indexer1");

if (!Files.exists(index)) {
	index = Files.createDirectories(index);
} else {

	Files.walk(index)
		 .sorted(Comparator.reverseOrder())  // as the file tree is traversed depth-first and that deleted dirs have to be empty  
	     .forEach(t -> {
		     try {
			     Files.delete(t);
		     } catch (IOException e) {
			     // LOG the exception and potentially stop the processing
			    
		     }
	     });
	if (!Files.exists(index)) {
		index = Files.createDirectories(index);
	}
}

private void deleteFileOrFolder(File file){
    try {
        for (File f : file.listFiles()) {
            f.delete();
            deleteFileOrFolder(f);
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace(System.err);
    }
}

        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 :)

You can make recursive call if sub directories exists

import java.io.File;

class DeleteDir {
public static void main(String args[]) {
deleteDirectory(new File(args[0]));
}

static public boolean deleteDirectory(File path) {
if( path.exists() ) {
  File[] files = path.listFiles();
  for(int i=0; i<files.length; i++) {
     if(files[i].isDirectory()) {
       deleteDirectory(files[i]);
     }
     else {
       files[i].delete();
     }
  }
}
return( path.delete() );
}
}

You may also use this to delete a folder that contains subfolders and files.

1. Fist, create a recursive function.

    private void recursiveDelete(File file){
            
            if(file.list().length > 0){
                String[] list = file.list();
                for(String is: list){
                    File currentFile = new File(file.getPath(),is);
                    if(currentFile.isDirectory()){
                            recursiveDelete(currentFile);
                    }else{
                        currentFile.delete();
                    }
                }
            }else {
                file.delete();
            }
        }
   

2. then, from your initial function use a while loop to call the recursive.

    private boolean deleteFolderContainingSubFoldersAndFiles(){
    
            boolean deleted = false;
            File folderToDelete = new File("C:/mainFolderDirectoryHere");
    
            while(folderToDelete != null && folderToDelete.isDirectory()){
                recursiveDelete(folderToDelete);
            }
    
            return deleted;
        }
   

Here is a simple way to do it :

public void deleteDirectory(String directoryPath)  {
      new Thread(new Runnable() {
          public void run() {
             for(String e: new File(directoryPath).list()) {
                 if(new File(e).isDirectory()) 
                     deleteDirectory(e);
                 else 
                     new File(e).delete();
             }
          }
      }).start();
  }

You can simply remove the directory which contains a single file or multiple files using the apache commons library.

gradle import :

implementation group: 'commons-io', name: 'commons-io', version: '2.5'

File file=new File("/Users/devil/Documents/DummyProject/hello.txt");
    
 File parentDirLocation=new File(file.getParent);
    
//Confirming the file parent is a directory or not.
             
if(parentDirLocation.isDirectory){
    
    
 //after this line the mentioned directory will deleted.
 FileUtils.deleteDirectory(parentDirLocation);
   
 }

Remove it from else part

File index = new File("/home/Work/Indexer1");
if (!index.exists())
{
     index.mkdir();
     System.out.println("Dir Not present. Creating new one!");
}
index.delete();
System.out.println("File deleted successfully");

Some of these answers seem unnecessarily long:

if (directory.exists()) {
	for (File file : directory.listFiles()) {
		file.delete();
	}
	directory.delete();
}

Works for sub directories too.

You can use this function

public void delete()    
{   
    File f = new File("E://implementation1/");
    File[] files = f.listFiles();
    for (File file : files) {
        file.delete();
    }
}