In Java/Unix I understand you can't delete a folder with something in it and I can do it without recursion but this simple solution is great but I just can't see where/when this is deleting the actual files? by using the delete() function. I clearly see it using the delete() on the actual folder at the end but I don't see how it is or when it is calling delete() on the files it just gets them and when I feel it should be calling delete() it makes the recursive call???

I know it is something simple I am missing but it is driving me crazy and no where can I find answer any help would be greatly appreciated.

boolean deleteDirectory(File directoryToBeDeleted) {
    File[] allContents = directoryToBeDeleted.listFiles();
    if (allContents != null) {
        for (File file : allContents) {
            deleteDirectory(file);
        }
    }
    return directoryToBeDeleted.delete();
}

CodePudding user response：

directoryToBeDeleted is not always a directory. If allContents == null then directoryToBeDeleted is a file, not a directory as .listFiles() returns null if the object of type File is a file and not a folder.