Creating directory in Java

last modified January 27, 2024

In Java create directory tutorial, we show how to create a directory in Java. We also show how to set directory permissions on POSIX systems.

A computer directory is an organizational file system structrure that contains files and optionally other directories.

The java.nio.file.Files class consists of static methods that operate on files, directories, or other types of files.

Java create directory with Files.createDirectory

The Files.createDirectory creates a new directory. If a file already exists, a FileAlreadyExistsException is thrown.

JavaCreateDirectory.java

package com.zetcode;

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

public class JavaCreateDirectory {

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {

    String fileName = "/home/janbodnar/tmp/newdir";

    Path path = Paths.get(fileName);

    if (!Files.exists(path)) {
        
        Files.createDirectory(path);
        System.out.println("Directory created");
    } else {
        
        System.out.println("Directory already exists");
    }
}

}

The example creates a new directory with Files.createDirectory.

String fileName = “/home/janbodnar/tmp/newdir”;

Path path = Paths.get(fileName);

A Path is created from the file name. A Path is a Java object used to locate a file in a file system.

if (!Files.exists(path)) {

We first check if the directory does not already exist with Files.exists.

Files.createDirectory(path);

The directory is created with Files.createDirectory. The method takes a path object as a parameter.

Java create directories with Files.createDirectories

The Files.createDirectories creates a new directory; if the parent directories do not exist, they are created as well. The method does not thrown an exception if the directory already exist.

JavaCreateDirectories.java

package com.zetcode;

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

public class JavaCreateDirectories {

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {

    String fileName = "/home/janbodnar/docs/memos";
    Path path = Paths.get(fileName);

    Files.createDirectories(path);
}

}

The example creates a new directory with Files.createDirectories.

Java creating directory with permissions

With PosixFilePermissions, we can create a new directory and set its permissions. Note that this class cannot be used for Windows systems.

JavaCreateFileEx3.java

package com.zetcode;

import java.io.IOException; import java.nio.file.Files; import java.nio.file.Path; import java.nio.file.Paths; import java.nio.file.attribute.FileAttribute; import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFilePermission; import java.nio.file.attribute.PosixFilePermissions; import java.util.Set;

public class JavaCreateDirectoryWithPermissions {

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {

    String fileName = "/home/janbodnar/tmp/newdir";

    Path mypath = Paths.get(fileName);

    if (!Files.exists(mypath)) {
    
        Set<PosixFilePermission> permissions = PosixFilePermissions.fromString("rwxr--r--");
        FileAttribute<Set<PosixFilePermission>> fileAttributes = PosixFilePermissions.asFileAttribute(permissions);

        Files.createDirectory(mypath, fileAttributes);
        System.out.println("Directory created");
        
    } else {
        System.out.println("Directory already exists");
    }
}

}

The example creates a new directory with the specified permissions.

Source

Java Creating and Reading Directories - tutorial

In this article we have shown how to create directories in Java.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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