Is this the best way to rewrite the content of a file in Java?

I want to rewrite the contents of a file.

What I have thought of so far is this:

1. Save the file name
2. Delete the existing file
3. Create a new empty file with the same name
4. Write the desired content to the empty file

Is this the best way? Or is there a more direct way, that is, not having to delete and create files, but simply change the content?

Solution 1:

To overwrite file foo.log with FileOutputStream:

File myFoo = new File("foo.log");
FileOutputStream fooStream = new FileOutputStream(myFoo, false); // true to append
                                                                 // false to overwrite.
byte[] myBytes = "New Contents\n".getBytes(); 
fooStream.write(myBytes);
fooStream.close();

or with FileWriter :

File myFoo = new File("foo.log");
FileWriter fooWriter = new FileWriter(myFoo, false); // true to append
                                                     // false to overwrite.
fooWriter.write("New Contents\n");
fooWriter.close();

Solution 2:

I would highly recommend using the Apache Common's FileUtil for this. I have found this package invaluable. It's easy to use and equally important it's easy to read/understand when you go back a while later.

//Create some files here
File sourceFile = new File("pathToYourFile");
File fileToCopy = new File("copyPath");

//Sample content
org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils.writeStringToFile(sourceFile, "Sample content");

//Now copy from source to copy, the delete source.
org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils.copyFile(sourceFile, fileToCopy);
org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils.deleteQuietly(sourceFile);

More information can be found at: http://commons.apache.org/io/api-release/org/apache/commons/io/FileUtils.html