Question

In Java, I want to delete all the contents that are present in a folder which includes files and folders.

public void startDeleting(String path) {
        List<String> filesList = new ArrayList<String>();
        List<String> folderList = new ArrayList<String>();
        fetchCompleteList(filesList, folderList, path);
        for(String filePath : filesList) {
            File tempFile = new File(filePath);
            tempFile.delete();
        }
        for(String filePath : folderList) {
            File tempFile = new File(filePath);
            tempFile.delete();
        }
    }

private void fetchCompleteList(List<String> filesList, 
    List<String> folderList, String path) {
    File file = new File(path);
    File[] listOfFile = file.listFiles();
    for(File tempFile : listOfFile) {
        if(tempFile.isDirectory()) {
            folderList.add(tempFile.getAbsolutePath());
            fetchCompleteList(filesList, 
                folderList, tempFile.getAbsolutePath());
        } else {
            filesList.add(tempFile.getAbsolutePath());
        }

    }

}

This code does not work, what is the best way to do this?

Answer 1

If you use Apache Commons IO it’s a one-liner:

FileUtils.deleteDirectory(dir);

See FileUtils.deleteDirectory()

---

Guava used to support similar functionality:

Files.deleteRecursively(dir);

This has been removed from Guava several releases ago.

---

While the above version is very simple, it is also pretty dangerous, as it makes a lot of assumptions without telling you. So while it may be safe in most cases, I prefer the “official way” to do it (since Java 7):

public static void deleteFileOrFolder(final Path path) throws IOException {
  Files.walkFileTree(path, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>(){
    @Override public FileVisitResult visitFile(final Path file, final BasicFileAttributes attrs)
      throws IOException {
      Files.delete(file);
      return CONTINUE;
    }

    @Override public FileVisitResult visitFileFailed(final Path file, final IOException e) {
      return handleException(e);
    }

    private FileVisitResult handleException(final IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace(); // replace with more robust error handling
      return TERMINATE;
    }

    @Override public FileVisitResult postVisitDirectory(final Path dir, final IOException e)
      throws IOException {
      if(e!=null)return handleException(e);
      Files.delete(dir);
      return CONTINUE;
    }
  });
};