Java Program to List Files in a Directory

In this tutorial, we will learn how to list all the files and sub-directories present inside a directory.

List of Directory

The "list()" method of the Java File class is used to list all the files and sub-directories present inside a directory. It returns all the files and directories as a string array.

Example: List all files using list() method

import java.io.File;

class Main {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

    // creates a file object

    File file = new File("C:\\Users\\Guest User\\Desktop\\Java File\\List Method");

    // returns an array of all files

    String[] fileList = file.list();

    for(String str : fileList) {

      System.out.println(str);

    }

  }

}

 

Output

.vscode

file.txt

directory

newFile.txt

In the above example, we have created a file object named file. The object holds information about the specified path.

File file = new File("C:\\Users\\Guest User\\Desktop\\Java File\\List Method");

We have used the "list()" method to list all the files and sub-directories present in the specified path.

file.list();

Note: We have used double-backslash while specifying the path. It is because the \ character is used as an escape character in Java. Hence the first backslash is used as an escape character for the second one.