JFileChooser Swing Example

Alvin ReyesMay 7th, 2015Last Updated: May 25th, 2015

0 313 1 minute read

The JFileChooser Component is used to create a cross platform directory explorer that can be used for a Java Desktop Application. For this blog post, I’ll showcase the how to use the component and call it from a Java class.

1. Import the necessary objects

We need to import the following objects on your java class.

import java.io.File;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

2. Create a new JFileChooser Object

Create the new JFileChooser Object and set the default directory

...
JFileChooser jFileChooser = new JFileChooser();
jFileChooser.setCurrentDirectory(new File("/User/alvinreyes"));
...

3. Show the file explorer dialog

Call the showOpenDialog method to show the jfilechooser. It needs a component on where to run to, so we need to add the JFrame object here.

...
int result = jFileChooser.showOpenDialog(new JFrame());
...

4. Add code to check the selected file

We need to add this code so that we can pick up the selected file by the user

...
if (result == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
		    File selectedFile = jFileChooser.getSelectedFile();
		    System.out.println("Selected file: " + selectedFile.getAbsolutePath());
}
...

5. Launch the Java class

You will see the following screen as shown:

5. Code snippet

SampleJFileChooser.java

package com.jgc.areyes.main;

import java.io.File;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;



public class SampleJFileChooser {

	
	public SampleJFileChooser(){
		
		JFileChooser jFileChooser = new JFileChooser();
		jFileChooser.setCurrentDirectory(new File("/User/alvinreyes"));
		
		int result = jFileChooser.showOpenDialog(new JFrame());
	
	
		if (result == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
		    File selectedFile = jFileChooser.getSelectedFile();
		    System.out.println("Selected file: " + selectedFile.getAbsolutePath());
		}
	}
	
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		new SampleJFileChooser();
	}
}