File class in Java

File class
 Class File provides information about
 Files and directories

 The class provides

 A constructor with a String argument
 Specifying the name of a file or directory

 The name can be either an absolute path or a relative path

Methods of the File class
Methods of the File class
(cont’d)
FileFilter interface
 FileFilter
 Used for filtering the set of files shown to the user

 Method
 boolean accept(File pathName)
 Tests whether or not the file is acceptable

 Used in conjunction with

 File[] listFiles method of the File class
 To list files satisfying a given filter
NIO package
 File information can also be retrieved using
 Classes of the sub-packages of the java.nio package

 In particular, the following classes can be used:

 Path
 Objects represent the location of a file or directory
 Paths
 provides static methods used to create a Path object
 Files
 provides static methods for common file and directory manipulations
 DirectoryStream
 enables a program to list the content of a directory
Path class
 Path is
 a programmatic representation of a path in file system

 used to examine, locate, and manipulate files

 composed of methods that can among other things

 obtain information about path through getFileName()

 compare two paths using the equals() method

 instantiated by means of the get method of the Paths class

 Example: Path p = Paths.get(“sample.txt”);
Files class
 Files
 provides support for common file and directory manipulations
 exists(Path)
 Verifies existence of a file or a directory
 isReadable(Path), isWritable(Path), isExecutable(Path)
 Checks file accessibility
 isSameFile(Path, Path)
 Checks whether two paths locate the same file
 delete(Path) and deleteIfExists(Path)
 Delete files or directories
 copy(Path, Path)and move(Path, Path)
 Copy and move files or directories
Files class (cont’d)
 Files
 allows for management of meta-data
 size(Path)
 size of specified file in bytes
 isDirectory(Path)
 returns true if specified path is a directory
 getLastModifiedTime(Path)
 File’s last modified time
 getOwner(Path)
 Owner of specified file
 readAttributes(Path, Class)
 Reads attributes of a file in one bulk operation
Basic File Attributes (Example)

Path file = ...;

BasicFileAttributes attr = Files.readAttributes(file,
BasicFileAttributes.class);

System.out.println("creationTime: " + attr.creationTime());

System.out.println("lastAccessTime: " + attr.lastAccessTime());
System.out.println("lastModifiedTime: " +
attr.lastModifiedTime());
System.out.println("isDirectory: " + attr.isDirectory());
System.out.println("size: " + attr.size());
Reading, writing and creating
files using Files class
 Buffered I/O methods for text files in Files class
 newBufferedReader(Path, Charset)
 opens a file for reading returning a BufferedReader
 Example:
Charset charset = Charset.forName(“US-ASCII”);
BufferedReader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(file, charset);

 newBufferedWriter(Path, Charset)
 returns a BufferedWriter
 Example:
Charset charset = Charset.forName(“US-ASCII”);
BufferedWriter writer = Files.newBufferedWriter(file, charset);
Reading, writing and creating
files using Files class (cont’d)
 Unbuffered I/O methods for text files in Files class
 newInputStream(Path, OpenOption...)
 returns an InputStream for reading bytes from file
 Example:
InputStream in = Files.newInputStream(file);

 newOutputStream(Path, Charset)
 returns a OutputStream
 Example:
OutputStream out = Files.newOutputStream(file);