Utility method - Pass a File or String? [closed]

Answer 1

I would think this would depend upon what you have available at the point where you are going to be calling this method. If you have the file name (String), but no File, there seems little point in making the caller create the File from the file name.

My approach to this when I'm not sure is to create two methods, one for String, one for File. Then have the String one create the file and call the file one.

public static long getFileSize (final String fileString) {
  return getFileSIze (new File (fileString)); 
}

public static long getFileSize (File file) {
   if (file == null || !file.isFile()) return null;
   return file.length();
}