File is in the directory but isDirectory() returning false for a file

Question

Here is a snippet of the code:

String fileName = "High_Scores";
File file = new File(fileName + ".txt");
if(file.isFile())
  System.out.println("its a file");
if(!file.isDirectory())
   System.out.println("Not in directory");

if(file.delete())
  System.out.println("deleted");
else
  System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath());

File file2  = new File(fileName + "2.txt");
boolean success = file2.renameTo(file);
if(success == true)
  System.out.println("renamed");
else
  System.out.println(file2.getAbsolutePath());

What happens is that isFile() returns true, isDirectory() returns false; and the delete and renameTo methods won't work. I have no idea why isDirectory() returns false since both file and file2 are created in the java project folder. Thanks.

Answer 1

You may have a slight misunderstanding of the file.isDirectory() method. It returns true if the file itself IS a directory, not if the file is IN a directory.

Answer 2

I think you may be misunderstanding what File.isDirectory() does. From the java 7 API:

public boolean isDirectory()
Tests whether the file denoted by this abstract pathname is a directory.
Where it is required to distinguish an I/O exception from the case that the file is not a directory, or where several attributes of the same file are required at the same time, then the Files.readAttributes method may be used.

Returns:
true if and only if the file denoted by this abstract pathname exists and is a directory; false otherwise
Throws:
SecurityException - If a security manager exists and its SecurityManager.checkRead(java.lang.String) method denies read access to the file

from: Java 7 File API

So indeed, it is testing to see if that file IS a directory, not whether or not it is inside of it :)

+1 upvote to quazzieclodo, he beat me to it! :D

Answer 3

You are not creating a file with:

new File

you are missing following code:

File file2  = new File(fileName + "2.txt");
file2.createNewFile();