Java.io.File.delete() Method

Description

The java.io.File.delete() method deletes the file or directory defined by the abstract path name. To delete a directory, the directory must be empty.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.io.File.delete() method:

public boolean delete()

Parameters

• NA

Return Value

This method returns true if the file is successfully deleted, else false.

Exception

• SecurityException -- If SecurityManager.checkWrite(java.lang.String) method denies delete access to the file

Example

The following example shows the usage of java.io.File.delete() method.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.io.File;

public class FileDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      
      File f = null;
      boolean bool = false;
      
      try{
         // create new file
         f = new File("test.txt");
         
         // tries to delete a non-existing file
         bool = f.delete();
         
         // prints
         System.out.println("File deleted: "+bool);
         
         // creates file in the system
         f.createNewFile();
         
         // createNewFile() is invoked
         System.out.println("createNewFile() method is invoked");
         
         // tries to delete the newly created file
         bool = f.delete();
         
         // print
         System.out.println("File deleted: "+bool);
            
      }catch(Exception e){
         // if any error occurs
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result:

File deleted: false
createNewFile() method is invoked
File deleted: true