How do I check if a file exists in Java?

DVK picture DVK · Nov 29, 2009 · Viewed 1.2M times · Source

How can I check whether a file exists, before opening it for reading in Java (the equivalent of Perl's -e $filename)?

The only similar question on SO deals with writing the file and was thus answered using FileWriter which is obviously not applicable here.

If possible I'd prefer a real API call returning true/false as opposed to some "Call API to open a file and catch when it throws an exception which you check for 'no file' in the text", but I can live with the latter.

Answer

Sean A.O. Harney picture Sean A.O. Harney · Nov 29, 2009

Using java.io.File:

File f = new File(filePathString);
if(f.exists() && !f.isDirectory()) { 
    // do something
}