Get list of files and sub-directories in a directory in Java

In this Java tutorial, you will learn how to get the list of files and sub-directories in a given folder, with examples.

Java – Filter files or sub-directories in a directory

You can get the list of files and sub-directories in a given folder using Java. We can also filter the list based on extension or a specific condition.

In this Java Tutorial, we shall learn how to perform the following tasks.

• Extract list of files and directories in a folder using java
• Extract list of files belonging to specific file type
• Extract list of files belonging to specific file type, present in the folder and its sub folders/directories

Extract list of files and sub-directories in a directory

Follow these steps to extract the names of files and sub directories in a given directory.

Step 1 : Specify the folder. In this example, “sample” is the folder name placed at the root to the project.

File folder = new File("sample");

Step 2 : Get the list of all items in the folder.

File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();

Step 3 : Check if an item in the folder is a file.

listOfFiles[i].isFile()

Step 4 : Check if an item in the folder is a directory.

listOfFiles[i].isDirectory()

Complete program that lists the files and directories in a folder is given below.

ListOfFilesExample.java

import java.io.File;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
/**
* Program that gives list of files or directories in a folder using Java
*/
public class ListOfFilesExample {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		List files = new ArrayList<>();
		List directories = new ArrayList<>();
		
		File folder = new File("sample");
		File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();
		
		for (int i = 0; i < listOfFiles.length; i++) {
			if (listOfFiles[i].isFile()) {
				files.add(listOfFiles[i].getName());
			} else if (listOfFiles[i].isDirectory()) {
				directories.add(listOfFiles[i].getName());
			}
		}
		
		System.out.println("List of files :\n---------------");
		for(String fName: files)	System.out.println(fName);
		
		System.out.println("\nList of directories :\n---------------------");
		for(String dName: directories)	System.out.println(dName);
	}
}

The sample folder and its contents are as shown in the below picture :

When the program is run, output to the console would be as shown below.

Output

List of files :
---------------
html_file_1.html
text_file_1.txt
text_file_3.txt
text_file_2.txt
List of directories :
---------------------
directory_1
directory_2

Get list of files of specific extension from the directory

Follow these steps.

Step 1 : Specify the folder.

File folder = new File("sample");

Step 2 : Get the list of all items in the folder.

File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();

Step 3 : Check if an item in the folder is a file.

listOfFiles[i].isFile()

Step 4 : Check if the file belong to specified file-type.

Check the extension of the filename with String.endsWith(suffix)

listOfFiles[i].getName().endsWith(fileExtension)

Complete program to get the list of files, that belong to a specified extension type is shown below.

ListOfFilesExample.java

import java.io.File;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class ListOfFilesExample {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		List files = new ArrayList<>();
		List directories = new ArrayList<>();
		String fileExtension = ".txt";
		
		File folder = new File("sample");
		File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();
		
		for (int i = 0; i < listOfFiles.length; i++) {
			if (listOfFiles[i].isFile()) {
				if(listOfFiles[i].getName().endsWith(fileExtension)){
					files.add(listOfFiles[i].getName());
				}
			}
		}
		
		System.out.println("List of .txt files :\n--------------------");
		for(String fName: files)	System.out.println(fName);
	}
}

When the program is run, Output to the console would be as shown below.

Output

List of .txt files :
--------------------
text_file_1.txt
text_file_3.txt
text_file_2.txt

Get list of files with specific extension from the directory and its sub-directories

Follow these steps.

Step 1 : Specify the folder.

File folder = new File("D:"+File.separator+"Arjun"+File.separator+"sample");

Step 2 : Get the list of all items in the folder.

File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();

Step 3 : Check if an item in the folder is a file.

listOfFiles[i].isFile()

Step 4 : Check if the file belong to specified file-type.

Check the extension of the filename with String.endsWith(suffix)

listOfFiles[i].getName().endsWith(fileExtension)

Step 5 : Check if an item in the folder is a directory.

listOfFiles[i].isDirectory()

Step 6 : Get the list of files (beloging to specific file-type) recursively from all the sub-directories.

The complete program is given below.

FileListExtractor.java

import java.io.File;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class FileListExtractor {
	
	List allTextFiles = new ArrayList();
	String fileExtension = ".txt";
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		FileListExtractor folderCrawler = new FileListExtractor();
		folderCrawler.crawlFold("sample");
		System.out.println("All text files in the folder \"sample\" and its sub directories are :\n---------------------------------------------------------------");
		for(String textFileName:folderCrawler.allTextFiles){
			System.out.println(textFileName);
		}
	}
	
	public void crawlFold(String path){
		File folder = new File(path);
		File[] listOfFiles = folder.listFiles();
		for (int i = 0; i < listOfFiles.length; i++) {
			if (listOfFiles[i].isFile()) {
				if(listOfFiles[i].getName().endsWith(fileExtension)){
					allTextFiles.add(listOfFiles[i].getName());
				}
			} else if (listOfFiles[i].isDirectory()) {
				// if a directory is found, crawl the directory to get text files
				crawlFold(path+File.separator+listOfFiles[i].getName());
			}
		}
	}
}

When the program is run, output to the console is

Output

All text files in the folder "sample" and its sub directories are :
---------------------------------------------------------------
text_file_2_1.txt
text_file_1_1.txt
text_file_2_1.txt
text_file_1_1.txt
text_file_2_2.txt
text_file_1_2.txt
text_file_1.txt
text_file_3.txt
text_file_2.txt

Conclusion

In this Java Tutorial, we learned how to list all the files and sub-directories in a given folder.