Android; Check if file exists without creating a new one

Question

I want to check if file exists in my package folder, but I don't want to create a new one.

File file = new File(filePath);
if(file.exists()) 
     return true;

Does this code check without creating a new file?

Solution 1

Your chunk of code does not create a new one, it only checks if its already there and nothing else.

File file = new File(filePath);
if(file.exists())      
//Do something
else
// Do something else.

Solution 2

When you use this code, you are not creating a new File, it's just creating an object reference for that file and testing if it exists or not.

File file = new File(filePath);
if(file.exists()) 
    //do something

Solution 3

It worked for me:

File file = new File(getApplicationContext().getFilesDir(),"whatever.txt");
    if(file.exists()){
       //Do something
    }
    else{
       //Nothing
     }

Solution 4

When you say "in you package folder," do you mean your local app files? If so you can get a list of them using the Context.fileList() method. Just iterate through and look for your file. That's assuming you saved the original file with Context.openFileOutput().

Sample code (in an Activity):

public void onCreate(...) {
    super.onCreate(...);
    String[] files = fileList();
    for (String file : files) {
        if (file.equals(myFileName)) {
            //file exits
        }
    }
}

Solution 5

The methods in the Path class are syntactic, meaning that they operate on the Path instance. But eventually you must access the file system to verify that a particular Path exists

 File file = new File("FileName");
 if(file.exists()){
 System.out.println("file is already there");
 }else{
 System.out.println("Not find file ");
 }

View more solutions

Comments

[piokuc]

possible duplicate of Test if file exists

[Remi Guan]

@Kunok I'm checking your edit comment: removed words such as tanks as they are... :P

[Kunok]

@KevinGuan Oh yeah my bad, just got home from new eve party so I was not able to write properly :)

[ofnowhere]

Dont know why in my case this code is creating a new file.

[Pratik Butani]

How to check in sub folder also?

[Giova]

This is like that because there is no static method : File.exists(String file) , so you have to instanciate a new File object to access 'Exists' method.

[AndroDev]

I think OP doesn't wish to create new file object.

[Zach]

This is the solution if you only have the file name and not its path

[Jordi Vicens]

@Zach Not really, it's path would be the first parameter I sent ( getApplicationContext().getFilesDir() )

[Marian Paździoch]

@AndroDev no - he doesn't wish to create new FILE, answer creates new REFERENCE to file.

[dbc]

AmirGolan comments: when you give the file path, don't forget to include file name at the end of the path. It sounds stupid, but it took me two days to notice I forgot it.