Delete Files with same Prefix String using Java

Question

I have around 500 text files inside a directory with each with the same prefix in their filename, for example: dailyReport_.

The latter part of the file is the date of the file. (For example dailyReport_08262011.txt, dailyReport_08232011.txt)

I want to delete these files using a Java procedure. (I could go for a shell script and add it a job in the crontab but the application is meant to used by laymen).

I can delete a single file using something like this:

try{     File f=new File("dailyReport_08232011.txt");     f.delete(); } catch(Exception e){      System.out.println(e); } 

but can I delete the files having a certain prefix? (e.g. dailyReport08 for the 8th month) I could easily do that in shell script by using rm -rf dailyReport08*.txt .

But File f=new File("dailyReport_08*.txt"); doesnt work in Java (as expected).

Now is anything similar possible in Java without running a loop that searches the directory for files?

Can I achieve this using some special characters similar to * used in shell script?

Answer 1

No, you can't. Java is rather low-level language -- comparing with shell-script -- so things like this must be done more explicetly. You should search for files with required mask with folder.listFiles(FilenameFilter), and iterate through returned array deleting each entry. Like this:

final File folder = ... final File[] files = folder.listFiles( new FilenameFilter() {     @Override     public boolean accept( final File dir,                            final String name ) {         return name.matches( "dailyReport_08.*\\.txt" );     } } ); for ( final File file : files ) {     if ( !file.delete() ) {         System.err.println( "Can't remove " + file.getAbsolutePath() );     } }