How do I check if a file exists in Java?

Question

How can I check whether a file exists, before opening it for reading in Java (the equivalent of Perl\'s -e $filename

Answer 1

Don't use File constructor with String.
This may not work!
Instead of this use URI:

File f = new File(new URI("file:///"+filePathString.replace('\\', '/')));
if(f.exists() && !f.isDirectory()) { 
    // to do
}