How to read all files in a folder from Java?

Answer 1

Simple example that works with Java 1.7 to recursively list files in directories specified on the command-line:

import java.io.File;

public class List {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        for (String f : args) {
            listDir(f);
        }
    }

    private static void listDir(String dir) {
        File f = new File(dir);
        File[] list = f.listFiles();

        if (list == null) {
            return;
        }

        for (File entry : list) {
            System.out.println(entry.getName());
            if (entry.isDirectory()) {
                listDir(entry.getAbsolutePath());
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

/**
 * Function to read all mp3 files from sdcard and store the details in an
 * ArrayList
 */


public ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> getPlayList() 
    {
        ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> songsList=new ArrayList<>();
        File home = new File(MEDIA_PATH);

        if (home.listFiles(new FileExtensionFilter()).length > 0) {
            for (File file : home.listFiles(new FileExtensionFilter())) {
                HashMap<String, String> song = new HashMap<String, String>();
                song.put(
                        "songTitle",
                        file.getName().substring(0,
                                (file.getName().length() - 4)));
                song.put("songPath", file.getPath());

                // Adding each song to SongList
                songsList.add(song);
            }
        }
        // return songs list array
        return songsList;
    }

    /**
     * Class to filter files which have a .mp3 extension
     * */
    class FileExtensionFilter implements FilenameFilter 
    {
        @Override
        public boolean accept(File dir, String name) {
            return (name.endsWith(".mp3") || name.endsWith(".MP3"));
        }
    }

You can filter any textfiles or any other extension ..just replace it with .MP3

Answer 3

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

final File folder = new File("/home/you/Desktop");
listFilesForFolder(folder);

Files.walk API is available from Java 8.

try (Stream<Path> paths = Files.walk(Paths.get("/home/you/Desktop"))) {
    paths
        .filter(Files::isRegularFile)
        .forEach(System.out::println);
} 

The example uses try-with-resources pattern recommended in API guide. It ensures that no matter circumstances the stream will be closed.

Answer 4

Just to expand on the accepted answer I store the filenames to an ArrayList (instead of just dumping them to System.out.println) I created a helper class "MyFileUtils" so it could be imported by other projects:

class MyFileUtils {
    public static void loadFilesForFolder(final File folder, List<String> fileList){
        for (final File fileEntry : folder.listFiles()) {
            if (fileEntry.isDirectory()) {
                loadFilesForFolder(fileEntry, fileList);
            } else {
                fileList.add( fileEntry.getParent() + File.separator + fileEntry.getName() );
            }
        }
    }
}

I added the full path to the file name. You would use it like this:

import MyFileUtils;

List<String> fileList = new ArrayList<String>();
final File folder = new File("/home/you/Desktop");
MyFileUtils.loadFilesForFolder(folder, fileList);

// Dump file list values
for (String fileName : fileList){
    System.out.println(fileName);
}

The ArrayList is passed by "value", but the value is used to point to the same ArrayList object living in the JVM Heap. In this way, each recursion call adds filenames to the same ArrayList (we are NOT creating a new ArrayList on each recursive call).

Answer 5

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());
            }
        }
    }

}

Answer 6

Java 8 Files.walk(..) is good when you are soore it will not throw Avoid Java 8 Files.walk(..) termination cause of ( java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException ) .

Here is a safe solution , not though so elegant as Java 8Files.walk(..) :

int[] count = {0};
try {
    Files.walkFileTree(Paths.get(dir.getPath()), new HashSet<FileVisitOption>(Arrays.asList(FileVisitOption.FOLLOW_LINKS)),
            Integer.MAX_VALUE, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>() {
                @Override
                public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file , BasicFileAttributes attrs) throws IOException {
                    System.out.printf("Visiting file %s\n", file);
                    ++count[0];

                    return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
                }

                @Override
                public FileVisitResult visitFileFailed(Path file , IOException e) throws IOException {
                    System.err.printf("Visiting failed for %s\n", file);

                    return FileVisitResult.SKIP_SUBTREE;
                }

                @Override
                public FileVisitResult preVisitDirectory(Path dir , BasicFileAttributes attrs) throws IOException {
                     System.out.printf("About to visit directory %s\n", dir);
                    return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
                }
            });
} catch (IOException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}