Java 'file.delete()' Is not Deleting Specified File

java file delete-file
Kimberley Lloyd picture Kimberley Lloyd · Dec 20, 2010 · Viewed 144.5k times · Source

This is currently what I have to delete the file but it's not working. I thought it may be permission problems or something but it wasn't. The file that I am testing with is empty and exists, so not sure why it doesn't delete it.

UserInput.prompt("Enter name of file to delete");
String name = UserInput.readString();
File file = new File("\\Files\\" + name + ".txt");
file.delete();

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

I now have:

File file = new File(catName + ".txt");
String path = file.getCanonicalPath();
File filePath = new File(path);
filePath.delete();

To try and find the correct path at run time so that if the program is transferred to a different computer it will still find the file.

Answer

user2926391 picture user2926391 · Dec 16, 2013

The problem could also be due to any output streams that you have forgotten to close. In my case I was working with the file before the file being deleted. However at one place in the file operations, I had forgotten to close an output stream that I used to write to the file that was attempted to delete later.

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