How do I iterate through the files in a directory and it’s sub-directories in Java?

I need to get a list of all the files in a directory, including files in all the sub-directories. What is the standard way to accomplish directory iteration with Java?

Answer

You can use File#isDirectory() to test if the given file (path) is a directory. If this is true, then you just call the same method again with its File#listFiles() outcome. This is called recursion.

Here’s a basic kickoff example:

package com.stackoverflow.q3154488;

import java.io.File;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String... args) {
        File dir = new File("/path/to/dir");
        showFiles(dir.listFiles());
    }

    public static void showFiles(File[] files) {
        for (File file : files) {
            if (file.isDirectory()) {
                System.out.println("Directory: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
                showFiles(file.listFiles()); // Calls same method again.
            } else {
                System.out.println("File: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
            }
        }
    }
}

Note that this is sensitive to StackOverflowError when the tree is deeper than the JVM’s stack can hold. If you’re already on Java 8 or newer, then you’d better use Files#walk() instead which utilizes tail recursion:

package com.stackoverflow.q3154488;

import java.io.File;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class DemoWithJava8 {

    public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
        Path dir = Paths.get("/path/to/dir");
        Files.walk(dir).forEach(path -> showFile(path.toFile()));
    }

    public static void showFile(File file) {
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            System.out.println("Directory: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
        } else {
            System.out.println("File: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
        }
    }
}