How do I check if a file exists in Java?

How can I check whether a file exists, before opening it for reading in Java (the equivalent of Perl's -e $filename)?

The only similar question on SO deals with writing the file and was thus answered using FileWriter which is obviously not applicable here.

If possible I'd prefer a real API call returning true/false as opposed to some "Call API to open a file and catch when it throws an exception which you check for 'no file' in the text", but I can live with the latter.

Using java.io.File:

File f = new File(filePathString);
if(f.exists() && !f.isDirectory()) { 
    // do something
}

I would recommend using isFile() instead of exists(). Most of the time you are looking to check if the path points to a file not only that it exists. Remember that exists() will return true if your path points to a directory.

new File("path/to/file.txt").isFile();

new File("C:/").exists() will return true but will not allow you to open and read from it as a file.

By using nio in Java SE 7,

import java.nio.file.*;

Path path = Paths.get(filePathString);

if (Files.exists(path)) {
  // file exist
}

if (Files.notExists(path)) {
  // file is not exist
}

If both exists and notExists return false, the existence of the file cannot be verified. (maybe no access right to this path)

You can check if path is a directory or regular file.

if (Files.isDirectory(path)) {
  // path is directory
}

if (Files.isRegularFile(path)) {
  // path is regular file
}

Please check this Java SE 7 tutorial.

Using Java 8:

if(Files.exists(Paths.get(filePathString))) { 
    // do something
}

File f = new File(filePathString); 

This will not create a physical file. Will just create an object of the class File. To physically create a file you have to explicitly create it:

f.createNewFile();

So f.exists() can be used to check whether such a file exists or not.