CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
arya
arya

Reputation: 11

Cannot delete file after performing operations

Unable to delete files even after closing the corresponding readers and writers. Permissions are present on the files file.delete() returns false my code

main(){
        try{
        File file=new File(path);// Path where the file is present
        FileReader reader = new FileReader(path); 
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(reader); 
        FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(pathOther);
        BufferedWriter wr = new BufferedWriter(writer);
        // Readers and writers for i/o operations
       while((String str=br.readLine())!=null){ 
       wr.write(str);                    // Copying to another file
       }
       }catch(Exception e){}
       finally{
        reader.close(); //close reader

        writer.close(); //close writer
        file.delete(); //This returns false

}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 732

Answers (3)

Indrashis Banerjee
Indrashis Banerjee

Reputation: 1

Nothing will work call System.gc();

Upvotes: 0

Klitos Kyriacou
Klitos Kyriacou

Reputation: 11621

First, you should close the BufferedReader instead of the FileReader (the BufferedReader will in turn call close() on the FileReader):

So instead of:

reader.close(); //close reader

do:

br.close();

(and leave out the complete redundant comment).

Also, since File.delete() simply returns a Boolean and doesn't tell you why it failed, you can get more information by calling Files.delete instead:

try {
    Files.delete(file.toPath());
} catch (IOException e) {
    // e now contains information about why it can't delete.
}

Upvotes: 0

Tim Biegeleisen
Tim Biegeleisen

Reputation: 521239

My guess as to what is going on is that you close the FileInputStream but leave the BufferedReader open, which leaves something holding on to the file handle. Then, when you try to delete the file, it returns false because something else has a handle on it.

Try the following code:

File file = new File(path);
try {
    br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));

    // use the reader ...
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
    try {
        if (br != null) br.close();
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

// now close the file
file.delete();

Update:

While testing the above code I noticed something else which could also cause the observations you were seeing. If the file at path does not exist, then logically calling file.delete will also fail for this reason. So you should make sure that the file actually exists before trying to delete it. You can call file.exists() to check for this.

Upvotes: 2

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