Java provides a built-in class java.io.File for standard file operations. This can be used for renaming files as well. The following example shows how a file can be renamed in Java.

import java.io.File;

/** 
 * How to rename a file in Java 7 and below.
 * @author jj
 */
public class RenameFile1 {
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        
        // Please ensure that the following file/folder exists
        File f = new File("c:/temp/test1.txt");
        
        // The following file should not exist while running the program
        File rF = new File("c:/temp/test2.txt");
        
        if(f.renameTo(rF)) {
            System.out.println("File was successfully renamed");
        } else {
            System.out.println("Error: Unable to rename file");
        }
        
    }
}

 

Since Java 8, a new class java.nio.file.Files was introduced. This is a more reliable and flexible option than the java.io.File. The following example shows the recommended way of renaming files in Java 8.

import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

/** 
 * How to rename a file in Java 8 and above.
 * @author jj
 */
public class RenameFile2 {
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        
        Path f = Paths.get("c:/temp/test1.txt");
        Path rF = Paths.get("c:/temp/test2.txt");
        try {
            Files.move(f, rF, StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING);
            System.out.println("File was successfully renamed");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.out.println("Error: Unable to rename file");
        }       
    }
}