Learn to use various Java APIs such as Files.list()
and DirectoryStream
to list all files present in a directory, including hidden files, recursively.
- For using external iteration (for loop) use
DirectoryStream
. - For using Stream API operations, use
Files.list()
instead.
1. Listing Files Only in a Given Directory
1.1. Sream of Files with Files.list()
If we are interested in non-recursively listing the files and excluding all sub-directories and files in sub-directories, then we can use this approach.
- Read all files and directories entries using Files.list().
- Check if a given entry is a file using Predicate File::isFile.
- Collect all filtered entries into a List.
//The source directory
String directory = "C:/temp";
// Reading only files in the directory
try {
List<File> files = Files.list(Paths.get(directory))
.map(Path::toFile)
.filter(File::isFile)
.collect(Collectors.toList());
files.forEach(System.out::println);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
1.2. DirectoryStream to Loop through Files
DirectoryStream is part of Java 7 and is used to iterate over the entries in a directory in for-each loop style.
Closing a directory stream releases any resources associated with the stream. Failure to close the stream may result in a resource leak. The try-with-resources statement provides a useful construct to ensure that the stream is closed.
List<File> fileList = new ArrayList<>();
try (DirectoryStream<Path> stream = Files
.newDirectoryStream(Paths.get(directory))) {
for (Path path : stream) {
if (!Files.isDirectory(path)) {
fileList.add(path.toFile());
}
}
}
fileList.forEach(System.out::println);
2. Listing All Files in Given Directory and Sub-directories
2.1. Files.walk() for Stream of Paths
The walk() method returns a Stream by walking the file tree beginning with a given starting file/directory in a depth-first manner.
Note that this method visits all levels of the file tree.
String directory = "C:/temp";
List<Path> pathList = new ArrayList<>();
try (Stream<Path> stream = Files.walk(Paths.get(directory))) {
pathList = stream.map(Path::normalize)
.filter(Files::isRegularFile)
.collect(Collectors.toList());
}
pathList.forEach(System.out::println);
If you wish to include the list of Path instances for directories as well, then remove the filter condition Files::isRegularFile.
2.2. Simple Recursion
We can also write the file tree walking logic using the recursion. It gives a little more flexibility if we want to perform some intermediate steps/checks before adding the entry to list of the files.
String directory = "C:/temp";
//Recursively list all files
List<File> fileList = listFiles(directory);
fileList.forEach(System.out::println);
private static List<File> listFiles(final String directory) {
if (directory == null) {
return Collections.EMPTY_LIST;
}
List<File> fileList = new ArrayList<>();
File[] files = new File(directory).listFiles();
for (File element : files) {
if (element.isDirectory()) {
fileList.addAll(listFiles(element.getPath()));
} else {
fileList.add(element);
}
}
return fileList;
}
Please note that if we’re working with a large directory, then using
DirectoryStream
performs better.
3. Listing All Files of a Certain Extention
To get the list of all files of certain extensions only, use two predicates Files::isRegularFile
and filename.endsWith(".extension")
together.
In given example, we are listing all .java
files in a given directory and all of its sub-directories.
String directory = "C:/temp";
//Recursively list all files
List<Path> pathList = new ArrayList<>();
try (Stream<Path> stream = Files.walk(Paths.get(directory))) {
// Do something with the stream.
pathList = stream.map(Path::normalize)
.filter(Files::isRegularFile)
.filter(path -> path.getFileName().toString().endsWith(".java"))
.collect(Collectors.toList());
}
pathList.forEach(System.out::println);
}
4. Listing All Hidden Files
To find all the hidden files, we can use filter expression file -> file.isHidden()
in any of the above examples.
List<File> files = Files.list(Paths.get(dirLocation))
.filter(path -> path.toFile().isHidden())
.map(Path::toFile)
.collect(Collectors.toList());
In the above examples, we learn to use the java 8 APIs loop through the files in a directory recursively using various search methods. Feel free to modify the code and play with it.
Happy Learning !!
Hi,
how to apply filter to get the list of files created between two dates.
Could you please suggest on this.
Files.newDirectoryStream(Paths.get(directory),
path -> path.toFile().lastModified() > sd.getTime() && path.toFile().lastModified() < ed.getTime());
Alex B, that code does not demonstrate what list the filenames go to. Where is the list variable ?
Here is the code for reading filename and store them in list.
I appreciate the post.
But the code in “Find all hidden files in directory” section gives syntax error.
And, its sad that you didn’t tell how to capture the file names in a list or something else (will be helpful for the people who are learning java 8). In real world, we don’t need to read the file names just to sysout.
Here is the code for reading file names and store them in list.
You’re actually better off doing something like this:
Which allows you to use the streams api to transform/filter the list before you collect it.
nice code