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

In Java 8, we can now use the Files utility to walk a file tree. Very simple.

Files.walk(root.toPath())
      .filter(path -> !Files.isDirectory(path))
      .forEach(path -> System.out.println(path));

Answer 2

// Ready to run

import java.io.File;

public class Filewalker {

    public void walk( String path ) {

        File root = new File( path );
        File[] list = root.listFiles();

        if (list == null) return;

        for ( File f : list ) {
            if ( f.isDirectory() ) {
                walk( f.getAbsolutePath() );
                System.out.println( "Dir:" + f.getAbsoluteFile() );
            }
            else {
                System.out.println( "File:" + f.getAbsoluteFile() );
            }
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Filewalker fw = new Filewalker();
        fw.walk("c:\\" );
    }

}

Answer 3

No external libraries needed.
Returns a Collection so you can do whatever you want with it after the call.

public static Collection<File> listFileTree(File dir) {
    Set<File> fileTree = new HashSet<File>();
    if(dir==null||dir.listFiles()==null){
        return fileTree;
    }
    for (File entry : dir.listFiles()) {
        if (entry.isFile()) fileTree.add(entry);
        else fileTree.addAll(listFileTree(entry));
    }
    return fileTree;
}

Answer 4

Non-recursive BFS with a single list (particular example is searching for *.eml files):

    final FileFilter filter = new FileFilter() {
        @Override
        public boolean accept(File file) {
            return file.isDirectory() || file.getName().endsWith(".eml");
        }
    };

    // BFS recursive search
    List<File> queue = new LinkedList<File>();
    queue.addAll(Arrays.asList(dir.listFiles(filter)));

    for (ListIterator<File> itr = queue.listIterator(); itr.hasNext();) {
        File file = itr.next();
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            itr.remove();
            for (File f: file.listFiles(filter)) itr.add(f);
        }
    }

Answer 5

With Java 7 you can use the following class:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileVisitResult;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.nio.file.SimpleFileVisitor;
import java.nio.file.attribute.BasicFileAttributes;

public class MyFileIterator extends SimpleFileVisitor<Path>
{
    public MyFileIterator(String path) throws Exception
    {
        Files.walkFileTree(Paths.get(path), this);
    }

    @Override
    public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file,
            BasicFileAttributes attributes) throws IOException
    {
        System.out.println("File: " + file);
        return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
    }

    @Override
    public FileVisitResult preVisitDirectory(Path dir,
            BasicFileAttributes attributes) throws IOException
    {
        System.out.println("Dir: " + dir);
        return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
    }
}

Answer 6

My version (of course I could have used the built in walk in Java 8 ;-) ):

public static List<File> findFilesIn(File rootDir, Predicate<File> predicate) {
        ArrayList<File> collected = new ArrayList<>();
        walk(rootDir, predicate, collected);
        return collected;
    }

    private static void walk(File dir, Predicate<File> filterFunction, List<File> collected) {
        Stream.of(listOnlyWhenDirectory(dir))
                .forEach(file -> walk(file, filterFunction, addAndReturn(collected, file, filterFunction)));
    }

    private static File[] listOnlyWhenDirectory(File dir) {
        return dir.isDirectory() ? dir.listFiles() : new File[]{};
    }

    private static List<File> addAndReturn(List<File> files, File toAdd, Predicate<File> filterFunction) {
        if (filterFunction.test(toAdd)) {
            files.add(toAdd);
        }
        return files;
    }