Java in a Nutshell, 5th Edition

Name

FileFilter

Synopsis

This interface, added in Java 1.2, defines an accept( ) method that filters a list of files. You can list the contents of a directory by calling the listFiles( ) method of the File object that represents the desired directory. If you want a filtered listing, such as a listing of files but not subdirectories or a listing of files whose names end in .class, you can pass a FileFilter object to listFiles( ). For each entry in the directory, a File object is passed to the accept( ) method. If accept( ) returns true, that File is included in the return value of listFiles( ). If accept( ) returns false, that entry is not included in the listing. Use FilenameFilter if compatibility with previous releases of Java is required or if you prefer to filter filenames (i.e., String objects) rather than File objects.

public interface FileFilter {
// Public Instance Methods
     boolean accept(File pathname);  
}

Passed To

File.listFiles( )