Java – How to create a new file | Code Factory

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There are various ways in which you can create a new file in Java. The two most recommended way of creating new files.

Create New file using Java NIO (Recommended) – JDK 7+

You can use Files.createFile(path) method to create a new File in Java :

package com.example.java.programming.file;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileAlreadyExistsException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

/**
 * @author code.factory
 *
 */
public class CreateNewFile {
	public static void main(String... args) {
		Path filePath = Paths.get("./test.txt");

		try {
			// Create a file at the specified file path
			Files.createFile(filePath);
			System.out.println("File created successfully!");

		} catch (FileAlreadyExistsException e) {
			System.out.println("File already exists");
		} catch (IOException e) {
			System.out.println("An I/O error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
		} catch (SecurityException e) {
			System.out.println("No permission to create file: " + e.getMessage());
		}
	}
}

Create New File with missing parent directories using Java NIO

There are scenarios in which you may want to create any missing parent directories while creating a File. You can use Files.createDirectories(path) function to create missing parent directories before creating the file.

package com.example.java.programming.file;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileAlreadyExistsException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

/**
 * @author code.factory
 *
 */
public class CreateNewFile {
	public static void main(String... args) {
		Path filePath = Paths.get("files/file/test.txt");
		
		try {
			// Create missing parent directories
			if (filePath.getParent() != null) {
				Files.createDirectories(filePath.getParent());
			}

			// Create a file at the specified file path
			Files.createFile(filePath);
			System.out.println("File created successfully!");

		} catch (FileAlreadyExistsException e) {
			System.out.println("File already exists");
		} catch (IOException e) {
			System.out.println("An I/O error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
		} catch (SecurityException e) {
			System.out.println("No permission to create file: " + e.getMessage());
		}
	}
}

Create New File in Java using java.io.File class – JDK 6+

You can also use the File.createNewFile() method to create a new File in Java. It returns a boolean value which is –

• true, if the file does not exist and was created successfully
• false, if the file already exists

package com.example.java.programming.file;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * @author code.factory
 *
 */
public class CreateNewFile {
	public static void main(String... args) {
		File file = new File("./test.txt");

		try {
			// Create the file in the filesystem
			boolean success = file.createNewFile();

			if (success) {
				System.out.println("File created successfully!");
			} else {
				System.out.println("File already exists!");
			}
		} catch (IOException e) {
			System.out.println("An I/O error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
		} catch (SecurityException e) {
			System.out.println("No sufficient permission to create file: " + e.getMessage());
		}
	}
}

Create New File along with missing parent directories with java.io.File class

If you want to create missing parent directories while creating a file, then you can explicitly create the directories by calling file.getParentFile().mkdirs() method :

package com.example.java.programming.file;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * @author code.factory
 *
 */
public class CreateNewFile {
	public static void main(String... args) {
		File file = new File("files/file//test.txt");

		try {
			// Create missing parent directories
			if (file.getParentFile() != null) {
				file.getParentFile().mkdirs();
			}

			// Create the file
			boolean success = file.createNewFile();

			if (success) {
				System.out.println("File created successfully!");
			} else {
				System.out.println("File already exists!");
			}
		} catch (IOException e) {
			System.out.println("An I/O error occurred: " + e.getMessage());
		} catch (SecurityException e) {
			System.out.println("No sufficient permission to create file: " + e.getMessage());
		}
	}
}