How to Copy a File with Java

0. Foreword

https://www.journaldev.com/861/java-copy-file

1. Several commonly used methods

1.1 Java Copy File – Stream

private static void copyFileUsingStream(File source, File dest) throws IOException {
    InputStream is = null;
    OutputStream os = null;
    try {
        is = new FileInputStream(source);
        os = new FileOutputStream(dest);
        byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
        int length;
        while ((length = is.read(buffer)) > 0) {
            os.write(buffer, 0, length);
        }
    } finally {
        is.close();
        os.close();
    }
}

1.2 Java Copy File – java.nio.channels.FileChannel

private static void copyFileUsingChannel(File source, File dest) throws IOException {
    FileChannel sourceChannel = null;
    FileChannel destChannel = null;
    try {
        sourceChannel = new FileInputStream(source).getChannel();
        destChannel = new FileOutputStream(dest).getChannel();
        destChannel.transferFrom(sourceChannel, 0, sourceChannel.size());
       }finally{
           sourceChannel.close();
           destChannel.close();
   }
}

1.3 Java Copy File – Apache Commons IO FileUtils

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
    <version>2.11.0</version>
</dependency>

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

1.4 Java Copy File – Files class

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

3. Test

package com.journaldev.files;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;
import java.nio.file.Files;

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;

public class JavaFile {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException, IOException {
        File source = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/source.avi");
        File dest = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/dest.avi");

        //copy file conventional way using Stream
        long start = System.nanoTime();
        copyFileUsingStream(source, dest);
        System.out.println("Time taken by Stream  = "+(System.nanoTime()-start));
        
        //copy files using java.nio FileChannel
        source = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/sourceChannel.avi");
        dest = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/destChannel.avi");
        start = System.nanoTime();
        copyFileUsingChannel(source, dest);
        System.out.println("Time taken by Channel  = "+(System.nanoTime()-start));
        
        //copy files using apache commons io
        source = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/sourceApache.avi");
        dest = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/destApache.avi");
        start = System.nanoTime();
        copyFileUsingApacheCommonsIO(source, dest);
        System.out.println("Time taken by Apache Commons IO  = "+(System.nanoTime()-start));
        
        //using Java 7 Files class
        source = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/sourceJava7.avi");
        dest = new File("/Users/pankaj/tmp/destJava7.avi");
        start = System.nanoTime();
        copyFileUsingJava7Files(source, dest);
        System.out.println("Time taken by Java7 Files  = "+(System.nanoTime()-start));        
    }
}