How do I iterate through the files in a directory in Java?

You can use File#isDirectory() to test if the given file (path) is a directory. If this is true, then you just call the same method again with its File#listFiles() outcome. This is called recursion.

Here's a basic kickoff example:

package com.stackoverflow.q3154488;

import java.io.File;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String... args) {
        File dir = new File("/path/to/dir");
        showFiles(dir.listFiles());
    }

    public static void showFiles(File[] files) {
        for (File file : files) {
            if (file.isDirectory()) {
                System.out.println("Directory: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
                showFiles(file.listFiles()); // Calls same method again.
            } else {
                System.out.println("File: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
            }
        }
    }
}

Note that this is sensitive to StackOverflowError when the tree is deeper than the JVM's stack can hold. If you're already on Java 8 or newer, then you'd better use Files#walk() instead which utilizes tail recursion:

package com.stackoverflow.q3154488;

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

public class DemoWithJava8 {

    public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
        Path dir = Paths.get("/path/to/dir");
        Files.walk(dir).forEach(path -> showFile(path.toFile()));
    }

    public static void showFile(File file) {
        if (file.isDirectory()) {
            System.out.println("Directory: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
        } else {
            System.out.println("File: " + file.getAbsolutePath());
        }
    }
}

If you are using Java 1.7, you can use java.nio.file.Files.walkFileTree(...).

For example:

public class WalkFileTreeExample {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Path p = Paths.get("/usr");
    FileVisitor<Path> fv = new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>() {
      @Override
      public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file, BasicFileAttributes attrs)
          throws IOException {
        System.out.println(file);
        return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
      }
    };

    try {
      Files.walkFileTree(p, fv);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

}

If you are using Java 8, you can use the stream interface with java.nio.file.Files.walk(...):

public class WalkFileTreeExample {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try (Stream<Path> paths = Files.walk(Paths.get("/usr"))) {
      paths.forEach(System.out::println);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

}

Check out the FileUtils class in Apache Commons - specifically iterateFiles:

Allows iteration over the files in given directory (and optionally its subdirectories).