In certain scenarios such as unit testing, or for some application logics you might need to create temporary files.
Creating a temporary file
The File class in Java provides a method with name createTempFile(). This method accepts two String variables representing the prefix (starting name) and suffix(extension) of the temp file and a File object representing the directory (abstract path) at which you need to create the file.
Example
Following Java example creates a temporary file named exampleTempFile5387153267019244721.txt in the path D:/SampleDirectory
import java.io.File; import java.io.IOException; public class TempararyFiles { public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException { String prefix = "exampleTempFile"; String suffix = ".txt"; //Creating a File object for directory File directoryPath = new File("D:/SampleDirectory"); //Creating a temp file File.createTempFile(prefix, suffix, directoryPath); System.out.println("Temp file created........."); } }
Output
Temp file created.........
Deleting a temporary file
The File class provides a delete() method which deletes the current file or directory, invoke this method on the temporary file.
Example
The following Java program creates and deletes a temp file.
import java.io.File; import java.io.IOException; public class TempararyFiles { public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException { String prefix = "exampleTempFile"; String suffix = ".txt"; //Creating a File object for directory File directoryPath = new File("D:/SampleDirectory"); //Creating a temp file File tempFile = File.createTempFile(prefix, suffix, directoryPath); System.out.println("Temp file created: "+tempFile.getAbsolutePath()); //Deleting the file tempFile.delete(); System.out.println("Temp file deleted........."); } }
Output
Temp file created: D:\SampleDirectory\exampleTempFile7179732984227266899.txt Temp file deleted.........