# How to create a temporary file in Java

By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Dec 16, 2019. Topics: Java.
Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-create-temporary-file

> A short tutorial to learn how to create a temporary file in Java.

In this short article, you'll learn **how to create a temporary file** in Java using both NIO API and the legacy I/O API.

## Using `Files.createTempFile()` Method

In Java 7 and higher, you can use the  `Files.createTempFile()` static method from Java NIO Java to create a temporary file. This method creates an empty file in the default temporary-file directory, using the given prefix and suffix to generate its name.

Here is an example:

```java
try {
    // create temporary file
    Path path = Files.createTempFile("file-", ".tmp");

    // print path
    System.out.println(path.toAbsolutePath().toString());

} catch (IOException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}
```

The above code will create a temporary file and [print its absolute path](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-get-file-absolute-path) on the console. Here is how it looks like on a Linux machine:

```java
/tmp/file-5451298069416200317.tmp
```

**To create a temporary file in another folder**, you can use pass an instance of `Path` as a first argument to `Files.createTempFile()` method as shown below:

```java
try {
    // folder to create temporary file
    Path folder = Paths.get("dir");

    // create temporary file
    Path path = Files.createTempFile(folder, "file-", ".tmp");

    // print path
    System.out.println(path.toAbsolutePath().toString());

} catch (IOException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}
```

## Using `File.createTempFile()` Method

Another way to create a temporary file in Java is by using the legacy I/O API `File.createTempFile()` method. It works almost similar to the above method (create a temporary file in the default temporary-file folder):

```java
try {
    // create temporary file
    File file = File.createTempFile("file-", ".tmp");

    // print path
    System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath());

} catch (IOException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}
```

You can even **explicitly specify the directory path** to create a temporary file in a folder of your choice:

```java
try {
    // folder to create temporray file
    File folder = new File("dir");

    // create temporary file
    File file = File.createTempFile("file-", ".tmp", folder);

    // print path
    System.out.println(file.getAbsolutePath());

} catch (IOException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
}
```

## Further Reading

You may be interested in other Java I/O articles:

* [Reading and Writing Files in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-files)
* [How to Read and Write Text Files in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-text-files)
* [How to Read and Write Binary Files in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-binary-files)
* [Reading and Writing Files using Java NIO API](https://attacomsian.com/blog/java-read-write-files-nio-api)
* [How to read a file line by line in Java](https://attacomsian.com/blog/how-to-read-a-file-line-by-line-in-java)