Java – Create Temporary File

Creating a temporary file in java can be required in many scenarios, but mostly it will happen during unit tests where you don’t want to store the results. As soon as testcase is finished, you do not care about file content.

Creating temporary file using java.io.File.createTempFile()

This example is simplest and most recommended solution.

public class TemporaryFileExample
{
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
      File temp;
      try
      {
         temp = File.createTempFile("myTempFile", ".txt");
		 
         System.out.println("Temp file created : " + temp.getAbsolutePath());
      } catch (IOException e)
      {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Output:

Temp file created : C:\Users\lokesh\AppData\Local\Temp\myTempFile3492283537103788196.txt

Creating temporary file using NIO

public class TemporaryFileExample
{
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
      try
      {
         final Path path = Files.createTempFile("myTempFile", ".txt");
         System.out.println("Temp file : " + path);
         
         //Delete file on exit
         path.toFile().deleteOnExit();
         
      } catch (IOException e)
      {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Happy Learning !!