Java Program to Check if a Directory is Empty or Not

Last Updated : 22 Oct, 2020

The list() method defined in class java.io.File which is used to obtain the list of files and folders(directories) present in the specified directory defined by its pathname. The list of files is stored in an array of string. If the length of an array is greater than 0, then the specified directory is not empty, else it is empty.

Method 1: Use of list() method

Suppose there is a directory present in the path /home/user/folder and it has three text files.
Create an array and store the name of files using the list() method.
Calculate the length of a string array
Print result

See the below program for the above approach.

Java

// Java Program to check if  
// a directory is empty or not 
  
import java.io.File; 
  
class GFG { 
    
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        // mention the directory path 
        File directory = new File("/home/mayur"); 
  
        if (directory.isDirectory()) { 
            
            // creating a String Array 
            // store name of files 
            String arr[] = directory.list(); 
  
            // check if length is greater than 0 or not 
            if (arr.length > 0) { 
                System.out.println("The directory "
                                   + directory.getPath() 
                                   + " is not Empty!"); 
            } 
            else { 
                System.out.println("The directory "
                                   + directory.getPath() 
                                   + " is Empty!"); 
            } 
        } 
    } 
}

Output:

Method 2: Use of DirectoryStream

Java 7 onwards, the Files.newDirectoryStream method was introduced that returns a DirectoryStream<Path> to iterate over all the entries in the directory.

Suppose there is a directory present in the path /home/user/folder and it has three text files.
Create a boolean function that checks if the directory is empty or not
If a given path is a file then throw an exception
If a given directory has files, return false else true.
Print the result

See the below program for the above approach.

Java

// Java Program to check if a 
// directory is empty or not 
  
import java.io.File; 
import java.io.IOException; 
import java.nio.file.DirectoryStream; 
import java.nio.file.Files; 
import java.nio.file.Path; 
  
public class GFG { 
    
    // boolean function which 
    // return true if directory is 
    // empty else return false 
    public static boolean isEmptyDirectory(File directory) 
        throws IOException 
    { 
        // check if given path is a directory 
        if (directory.exists()) { 
            if (!directory.isDirectory()) { 
  
                // throw exception if given path is a 
                // file 
                throw new IllegalArgumentException( 
                    "Expected directory, but was file: "
                    + directory); 
            } 
            else { 
                // create a stream and check for files 
                try (DirectoryStream<Path> directoryStream 
                     = Files.newDirectoryStream( 
                         directory.toPath())) { 
                    // return false if there is a file 
                    return !directoryStream.iterator() 
                                .hasNext(); 
                } 
            } 
        } 
        // return true if no file is present 
        return true; 
    } 
  
    public static void main(String[] args) 
        throws IOException 
    { 
        // enter path of directory 
        File directory = new File("/home/mayur"); 
  
        // call isEmptyDirectory Function 
        if (isEmptyDirectory(directory)) { 
            System.out.println("The directory "
                               + directory.getPath() 
                               + " is Empty!"); 
        } 
        else { 
            System.out.println("The directory "
                               + directory.getPath() 
                               + " is Not Empty!"); 
        } 
    } 
}

Output:

Java Program to Change Last Modification Time of a File

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Java Program to Check if a Directory is Empty or Not

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