Java Program to Delete a directory - GeeksforGeeks

02 Nov, 2020
The class named java.io.File represents a file or directory (path names) in the system. This class provides methods to perform various operations on files/directories.
The delete() method of the File class deletes the files and empty directory represented by the current File object. If a directory is not empty or contain files then that cannot be deleted directly. First, empty the directory, then delete the folder.
Suppose there exists a directory with path C:\\GFG. The following image displays the files and directories present inside GFG folder. The subdirectory Ritik contains a file named Logistics.xlsx and subdirectory Rohan contains a file named Payments.xlsx. 
GFG Directory
The following java programs illustrate how to delete a directory.
Method 1: using delete() to delete files and empty folders
Provide the path of a directory.
Call user-defined method deleteDirectory() to delete all the files and subfolders.
Java
// Java program to delete a directory  import java.io.File;  class DeleteDirectory {      // function to delete subdirectories and files    public static void deleteDirectory(File file)    {        // store all the paths of files and folders present        // inside directory        for (File subfile : file.listFiles()) {              // if it is a subfolder,e.g Rohan and Ritik,            // recursiley call function to empty subfolder            if (subfile.isDirectory()) {                deleteDirectory(subfile);            }              // delete files and empty subfolders            subfile.delete();        }    }      public static void main(String[] args)    {        // store file path        String filepath = "C:\\GFG";        File file = new File(filepath);          // call deleteDirectory function to delete        // subdirectory and files        deleteDirectory(file);          // delete main GFG folder        file.delete();    }}
Output
Following is the image of C drive where no GFG folder is present.
GFG folder deleted successfully
Method 2: using deleteDirectory() method from commons-io
To use deleteDirectory() method you need to add a commons-io dependency to maven project.
<dependency>
   <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
   <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
   <version>2.5</version>
</dependency>
Java
// Java program to delete a directory  import java.io.File;import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;  class DelteDirectory {      public static void main(String[] args)    {        // store file path        String filepath = "C:\\GFG";        File file = new File(filepath);          // call deleteDirectory method to delete directory        // recursively        FileUtils.deleteDirectory(file);          // delete GFG folder        file.delete();    }}
Output
Following is the image of C drive where no GFG folder is present.
GFG folder deleted Successfully
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