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Java Copy File | Directory | New Name (Rename) with examples

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Copying the file help to change the data without modifying the original data. Same as sometimes required a copy of a file and modifying an application. For example, a photo editing application or software has a copy of the original image as a temp file. In this tutorial, you will learn about writing a Java Copy File Program and many related examples of it.

Java Copy File Directory New Name example

Copying a file in java comes under File Handling. It’s important for to you learn how to Create, Write, Delete and Move Files programmatically in java.

Ways to Copy a File in Java

There are many ways to Copy a file in java, Here is some methods to do it:

  • NIO classes in java – java.nio.channels.FileChannel
  • Apache Commons IO FileUtils
  • Files class – copy() method
  • Operation using InputStream and OutputStream

Let’s start to see examples of Java Copy File

All examples in Java copy file with a new name (Rename). You can use the same name for it in the different file path.

1. Using Channel – NIO classes in java

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;

public class CopyFileExample
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        File oldFile =new File("test.txt");
        File newFile =new File("cook.txt");

        try {
            copyFileUsingNIO(oldFile,newFile);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
    private static void copyFileUsingNIO(File sourceFile, File destinationFile) throws IOException {
        FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(sourceFile);
        FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(destinationFile);
        FileChannel inChannel = inputStream.getChannel();
        FileChannel outChannel = outputStream.getChannel();
        try {
            inChannel.transferTo(0, inChannel.size(), outChannel);
        } finally {
            inChannel.close();
            outChannel.close();
            inputStream.close();
            outputStream.close();
        }
    }
}

Output: This output will common for all example of file copying in java

Java Copy File example output

2. Apache Commons IO FileUtils

Apache Commons IO has one method FileUtils.copyFile(File sourceFile, File destination file)  easily copy a file. If you are using an Apache Commons IO in the project then you can easily use its methods and classes.

A link to the library – https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-io/download_io.cgi
*Apache Commons IO 2.6 (requires JDK 1.7+)

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;

public class CopyFileExample
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        File oldFile =new File("test.txt");
        File newFile =new File("cook.txt");

        try {
            copyFileUsingApacheCommonsIO(oldFile,newFile);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
    private static void copyFileUsingApacheCommonsIO(File source, File dest) throws IOException {
        FileUtils.copyFile(source, dest);
    }
}

3. Files class – copy() method

If you are using a using Java SE 7 Files class, then copy() method simply do your work without a lot of code line.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;

public class CopyFileExample
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        File oldFile =new File("test.txt");
        File newFile =new File("cook.txt");

        try {
            copyFileUsingJava7Files(oldFile,newFile);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
    private static void copyFileUsingJava7Files(File source, File dest) throws IOException {
        Files.copy(source.toPath(), dest.toPath());
    }
}

4. Operation using InputStream and OutputStream

This is a basic way to do copy a file. It is slower than other methods because of Blocking IO and fully stream-oriented.

import java.io.*;


public class CopyFileExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        File oldFile = new File("test.txt");
        File newFile = new File("cook.txt");

        try {
            copyFileUsingIO(oldFile, newFile);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }

    private static void copyFileUsingIO(File sourceFile, File destinationFile) throws IOException {
        InputStream inputStreamData = null;
        OutputStream outputStreamData = null;

        try {
            inputStreamData = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(sourceFile));
            outputStreamData = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(destinationFile));
            byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
            int length;
            while ((length = inputStreamData.read(buffer)) > 0) {
                outputStreamData.write(buffer, 0, length);
            }

        } finally {
            inputStreamData.close();
            outputStreamData.close();
        }
    }
}

How Java copy directory?

Copying a Java copy folder or directory is the same. See the below example, how to copy a directory from one place to another place. Note- it will only copy the directory on files (inside files in the folder).

Using Files class – copy() method, you can use apache Apache Commons API for copying directory in Java.

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

public class CopyFileExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Path sourceDirectory = Paths.get("dest");
        Path targetDirectory = Paths.get("dest1");

        //copy source to target using Files Class
        try {
            Files.copy(sourceDirectory, targetDirectory);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
}

Output: You can see the output of example, only folder copy not file.

How Java copy directory example output

Question: How to copy multiple files from one directory to another in java?

Answer: You can do it Using one of the above methods. First, count and get the file path with the name of files using for-loop. Then apply any one of a method inside a loop to do until copy all of files.

You must follow this tutorial and example – Java Move File

Note: This example (Project) is developed in IntelliJ IDEA 2018.2.6 (Community Edition)
JRE: 11.0.1
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
macOS 10.14.1
Java version 11
All Java Copy File is in Java 11, so it may change on different from Java 9 or 10 or upgraded versions.|

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