How to read all files in a folder from Java?

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How to read all the files in a folder through Java? It doesn't matter which API.

33 Answers

One remark according to get all files in the directory.
The method Files.walk(path) will return all files by walking the file tree rooted at the given started file.

For instance, there is the next file tree:

\---folder
    |   file1.txt
    |   file2.txt
    |
    \---subfolder
            file3.txt
            file4.txt

Using the java.nio.file.Files.walk(Path):

Files.walk(Paths.get("folder"))
        .filter(Files::isRegularFile)
        .forEach(System.out::println);

Gives the following result:

folder\file1.txt
folder\file2.txt
folder\subfolder\file3.txt
folder\subfolder\file4.txt

To get all files only in the current directory use the java.nio.file.Files.list(Path):

Files.list(Paths.get("folder"))
        .filter(Files::isRegularFile)
        .forEach(System.out::println);

Result:

folder\file1.txt
folder\file2.txt

nice usage of java.io.FileFilter as seen on https://stackoverflow.com/a/286001/146745

File fl = new File(dir);
File[] files = fl.listFiles(new FileFilter() {          
    public boolean accept(File file) {
        return file.isFile();
    }
});

There are many good answers above, here's a different approach: In a maven project, everything you put in the resources folder is copied by default in the target/classes folder. To see what is available at runtime

 ClassLoader contextClassLoader = 
 Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
    URL resource = contextClassLoader.getResource("");
    File file = new File(resource.toURI());
    File[] files = file.listFiles();
    for (File f : files) {
        System.out.println(f.getName());
    }

Now to get the files from a specific folder, let's say you have a folder called 'res' in your resources folder, just replace:

URL resource = contextClassLoader.getResource("res");

If you want to have access in your com.companyName package then:

contextClassLoader.getResource("com.companyName");

You can put the file path to argument and create a list with all the filepaths and not put it the list manually. Then use a for loop and a reader. Example for txt files:

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{    
File[] files = new File(args[0].replace("\\", "\\\\")).listFiles(new FilenameFilter() { @Override public boolean accept(File dir, String name) { return name.endsWith(".txt"); } });
    ArrayList<String> filedir = new ArrayList<String>();
    String FILE_TEST = null;
    for (i=0; i<files.length; i++){
            filedir.add(files[i].toString());
            CSV_FILE_TEST=filedir.get(i) 

        try(Reader testreader = Files.newBufferedReader(Paths.get(FILE_TEST));
            ){
              //write your stuff
                 }}}
package com.commandline.folder;

import java.io.File;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.stream.Stream;

public class FolderReadingDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String str = args[0];
        final File folder = new File(str);
//      listFilesForFolder(folder);
        listFilesForFolder(str);
    }

    public static void listFilesForFolder(String str) {
        try (Stream<Path> paths = Files.walk(Paths.get(str))) {
            paths.filter(Files::isRegularFile).forEach(System.out::println);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static void listFilesForFolder(final File folder) {
        for (final File fileEntry : folder.listFiles()) {
            if (fileEntry.isDirectory()) {
                listFilesForFolder(fileEntry);
            } else {
                System.out.println(fileEntry.getName());
            }
        }
    }

}

We can use org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils, use listFiles() mehtod to read all the files in a given folder.

eg:

FileUtils.listFiles(directory, new String[] {"ext1", "ext2"}, true)

This read all the files in the given directory with given extensions, we can pass multiple extensions in the array and read recursively within the folder(true parameter).

public static List<File> files(String dirname) {
    if (dirname == null) {
        return Collections.emptyList();
    }

    File dir = new File(dirname);
    if (!dir.exists()) {
        return Collections.emptyList();
    }

    if (!dir.isDirectory()) {
        return Collections.singletonList(file(dirname));
    }

    return Arrays.stream(Objects.requireNonNull(dir.listFiles()))
        .collect(Collectors.toList());
}

This will Read Specified file extension files in given path(looks sub folders also)

public static Map<String,List<File>> getFileNames(String 
dirName,Map<String,List<File>> filesContainer,final String fileExt){
    String dirPath = dirName;
    List<File>files = new ArrayList<>();
    Map<String,List<File>> completeFiles = filesContainer; 
    if(completeFiles == null) {
        completeFiles = new HashMap<>();
    }
    File file = new File(dirName);

    FileFilter fileFilter = new FileFilter() {
        @Override
        public boolean accept(File file) {
            boolean acceptFile = false;
            if(file.isDirectory()) {
                acceptFile = true;
            }else if (file.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(fileExt))
              {
                acceptFile = true;
              }
            return acceptFile;
        }
    };
    for(File dirfile : file.listFiles(fileFilter)) {
        if(dirfile.isFile() && 
dirfile.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(fileExt)) {
            files.add(dirfile);
        }else if(dirfile.isDirectory()) {
            if(!files.isEmpty()) {
                completeFiles.put(dirPath, files);  
            }

getFileNames(dirfile.getAbsolutePath(),completeFiles,fileExt);
        }
    }
    if(!files.isEmpty()) {
        completeFiles.put(dirPath, files);  
    }
    return completeFiles;
}

This will work fine:

private static void addfiles(File inputValVal, ArrayList<File> files)
{
  if(inputVal.isDirectory())
  {
    ArrayList <File> path = new ArrayList<File>(Arrays.asList(inputVal.listFiles()));

    for(int i=0; i<path.size(); ++i)
    {
        if(path.get(i).isDirectory())
        {
            addfiles(path.get(i),files);
        }
        if(path.get(i).isFile())
        {
            files.add(path.get(i));
        }
     }

    /*  Optional : if you need to have the counts of all the folders and files you can create 2 global arrays 
        and store the results of the above 2 if loops inside these arrays */
   }

   if(inputVal.isFile())
   {
     files.add(inputVal);
   }

}

Given a baseDir, lists out all the files and directories below it, written iteratively.

    public static List<File> listLocalFilesAndDirsAllLevels(File baseDir) {

    List<File>  collectedFilesAndDirs   = new ArrayList<>();
    Deque<File> remainingDirs           = new ArrayDeque<>();

    if(baseDir.exists()) {
        remainingDirs.add(baseDir);

        while(!remainingDirs.isEmpty()) {
            File dir = remainingDirs.removeLast();
            List<File> filesInDir = Arrays.asList(dir.listFiles());
            for(File fileOrDir : filesInDir)  {
                collectedFilesAndDirs.add(fileOrDir);
                if(fileOrDir.isDirectory()) {
                    remainingDirs.add(fileOrDir);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return collectedFilesAndDirs;
}
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