Recursively list files in Java

Question

How do I recursively list all files under a directory in Java? Does the framework provide any utility?

I saw a lot of hacky implementations. But none from the fra

Answer 1

Another way you can do even if someone already provide Java 8 walk.

This one will provide you all files recursively

  private Stream<File> files(File file) {
    return file.isDirectory()
            ? Arrays.stream(file.listFiles()).flatMap(this::files)
            : Stream.of(file);
}

Answer 2

I think this should do the work:

File dir = new File(dirname);
String[] files = dir.list();

This way you have files and dirs. Now use recursion and do the same for dirs (File class has isDirectory() method).

Answer 3

Lists all files with provided extensions,with option to scan subfolders (recursive)

 public static ArrayList<File> listFileTree(File dir,boolean recursive) {
        if (null == dir || !dir.isDirectory()) {
            return new ArrayList<>();
        }
        final Set<File> fileTree = new HashSet<File>();
        FileFilter fileFilter = new FileFilter() {
            private final String[] acceptedExtensions = new String[]{"jpg", "png", "webp", "jpeg"};

            @Override
            public boolean accept(File file) {
                if (file.isDirectory()) {
                    return true;
                }
                for (String extension : acceptedExtensions) {
                    if (file.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(extension)) {
                        return true;
                    }
                }
                return false;
            }
        };
        File[] listed = dir.listFiles(fileFilter);
        if(listed!=null){
            for (File entry : listed) {
                if (entry.isFile()) {
                    fileTree.add(entry);
                } else if(recursive){
                    fileTree.addAll(listFileTree(entry,true));
                }
            }
        }
        return new ArrayList<>(fileTree);
    }

Answer 4

base on @Michael answer, add check whether listFiles return null

static Stream<File> files(File file) {
    return file.isDirectory()
            ? Optional.ofNullable(file.listFiles()).map(Stream::of).orElseGet(Stream::empty).flatMap(MainActivity::files)
            : Stream.of(file);
}

or use Lightweight-Stream-API, which support Android5 & Android6

static Stream<File> files(File f) {
    return f.isDirectory() ? Stream.ofNullable(f.listFiles()).flatMap(MainActivity::files) : Stream.of(f);
}

Answer 5

I would go with something like:

public void list(File file) {
    System.out.println(file.getName());
    File[] children = file.listFiles();
    for (File child : children) {
        list(child);
    }
}

The System.out.println is just there to indicate to do something with the file. there is no need to differentiate between files and directories, since a normal file will simply have zero children.

Answer 6

Example outputs *.csv files in directory recursive searching Subdirectories using Files.find() from java.nio:

String path = "C:/Daten/ibiss/ferret/";
    logger.debug("Path:" + path);
    try (Stream<Path> fileList = Files.find(Paths.get(path), Integer.MAX_VALUE,
            (filePath, fileAttr) -> fileAttr.isRegularFile() && filePath.toString().endsWith("csv"))) {
        List<String> someThingNew = fileList.sorted().map(String::valueOf).collect(Collectors.toList());
        for (String t : someThingNew) {
            t.toString();
            logger.debug("Filename:" + t);
        }

    }

Posting this example, as I had trouble understanding howto pass the filename parameter in the #1 example given by Bryan, using foreach on Stream-result -

Hope this helps.