To delete a directory, you can simply use the File.delete(), but the directory must be empty in order to delete it.

Often times, you may require to perform recursive delete in a directory, which means all it’s sub-directories and files should be delete as well, see below example :

Directory recursive delete example

Delete the directory named “C:\\mkyong-new“, and all it’s sub-directories and files as well. The code is self-explanatory and well documented, it should be easy to understand.

package com.mkyong.file;
 
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
 
public class DeleteDirectoryExample
{
    private static final String SRC_FOLDER = "C:\\mkyong-new";
 
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {	
 
    	File directory = new File(SRC_FOLDER);
 
    	//make sure directory exists
    	if(!directory.exists()){
 
           System.out.println("Directory does not exist.");
           System.exit(0);
 
        }else{
 
           try{
 
               delete(directory);
 
           }catch(IOException e){
               e.printStackTrace();
               System.exit(0);
           }
        }
 
    	System.out.println("Done");
    }
 
    public static void delete(File file)
    	throws IOException{
 
    	if(file.isDirectory()){
 
    		//directory is empty, then delete it
    		if(file.list().length==0){
 
    		   file.delete();
    		   System.out.println("Directory is deleted : " 
                                                 + file.getAbsolutePath());
 
    		}else{
 
    		   //list all the directory contents
        	   String files[] = file.list();
 
        	   for (String temp : files) {
        	      //construct the file structure
        	      File fileDelete = new File(file, temp);
 
        	      //recursive delete
        	     delete(fileDelete);
        	   }
 
        	   //check the directory again, if empty then delete it
        	   if(file.list().length==0){
           	     file.delete();
        	     System.out.println("Directory is deleted : " 
                                                  + file.getAbsolutePath());
        	   }
    		}
 
    	}else{
    		//if file, then delete it
    		file.delete();
    		System.out.println("File is deleted : " + file.getAbsolutePath());
    	}
    }
}

Result

File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\404.php
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\archive.php
...
Directory is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\includes
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\index.php
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\index.php.hacked
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\hoverIntent.js
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\jquery-1.4.2.min.js
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\jquery.bgiframe.min.js
Directory is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\superfish-1.4.8\css
Directory is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\superfish-1.4.8\images
Directory is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\superfish-1.4.8
File is deleted : C:\mkyong-new\js\superfish-navbar.css
...
Directory is deleted : C:\mkyong-new
Done
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