Cannot delete folder using Java

Question

I am trying to delete a folder which has only files but no sub folders without success.

Code:

File rowFolder = new File(folderPath);
String[] files = rowFolder.list();
for (String file : files){
    File deleteFile = new File(file);
    System.out.println("deleting file -"+deleteFile.getName());
    deleteFile.delete();
}
System.out.println("deleting folder -"+rowFolder.getName());
rowFolder.delete();

Output:

deleting file -testing.pdf
deleting file -app_json.json
deleting file -photo.jpg
deleting folder -bundle_folder

The code doesn't delete any folder nor any file. Why is that?

Solution 1

You could be getting a failed delete for a number of reasons; the file could be locked by the file system, you may lack permissions, or could be open by another process etc.

If you're using Java 7 or above you can use the javax.nio.* API; it's a little more reliable & consistent than the legacy java.io.Fileclasses:

Path fp = file.toPath();
Files.delete(fp);

If you want to catch the possible exceptions:

try {
    Files.delete(path);
} catch (NoSuchFileException x) {
    System.err.format("%s: no such" + " file or directory%n", path);
} catch (DirectoryNotEmptyException x) {
    System.err.format("%s not empty%n", path);
} catch (IOException x) {
    // File permission problems are caught here.
    System.err.println(x);
}

Check the docs for more info on IO in Java 7

Solution 2

As you aren't checking the return value of delete(), the output you produce is meaningless. The deletion could have failed for any number of reasons:

• the file is a non-empty directory
• the file is open by another user (on some platforms)
• you don't have permission to delete that file.

Solution 3

Try this code

 public class DeleteDirTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        DeleteDirTest test = new DeleteDirTest();
        boolean result = test.deleteDir(new File("D:/test"));
        System.out.println(result);         
    }

    public boolean deleteDir(File file) {
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            String[] children = file.list();
            for (int i = 0; i < children.length; i++) {
                boolean success = deleteDir(new File(file, children[i]));
                if (!success) {
                    return false;
                }
            }
        }
        return file.delete();
    }

}