How to delete directories recursively ?

To delete a directory, you can simply use the File.delete(), but the directory must be empty in order to delete it.

Often times, you may require to perform recursive delete in a directory, which means all it’s sub-directories and files should be delete as well.

public static void main(String[] args) {

  String SRC_FOLDER = "C:\\shaan-new";

  File directory = new File(SRC_FOLDER);

  //make sure directory exists

  if(!directory.exists()) {

     System.out.println("Directory does not exist.");

     System.exit(0);

  } else {

    try {

      delete(directory);

    } catch(IOException e) {

      e.printStackTrace();

      System.exit(0);

    }

  }

}

/*** Delete method using recursion ****/

public static void delete(File file) throws IOException {

  if(file.isDirectory()) {

    //if directory is empty, then delete it

    if(file.list().length==0) {

       file.delete();

       System.out.println("Directory is deleted : " + file.getAbsolutePath());

   } else {

      // list all the directory contents

      String files[] = file.list();

      for (String temp : files) {

        // construct the file structure

        File fileDelete = new File(file, temp);

        // recursive delete

        delete(fileDelete);

      }

      // check the directory again, if empty then delete it

      if(file.list().length==0) {

        file.delete();

        System.out.println("Directory is deleted : " + file.getAbsolutePath());

      }

   }

  } else {

    // if file, then delete it

    file.delete();

    System.out.println("File is deleted : " + file.getAbsolutePath());

  }

}