Delete method doesn't delete - Java

I made a program that can display and edit a record. The problem is that I cannot delete the file that I wanted to delete to replace it with the edited ones.

public class Laboratory {
public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException,InterruptedException,IOException {
// paste your script here ;)
String fileName = "record.txt";
String filepath = "D:\\Programming\\Java\\Program - Script Test\\files\\" + fileName;
String in = "";
File file = new File(filepath);
Scanner fscan = new Scanner(file);
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
PrintWriter pw = null;
int linecount = 1;
String content = "";
// reads the file according to the given line count.
for(int i = 0; i < linecount; i++) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
}
// creates the template file.
String tempPath = "D:\\Programming\\Java\\Program - Script Test\\files\\" + "temp.txt";
String contentParts[] = content.split("\\|");
System.out.println(content);
System.out.println(contentParts[1]);
System.out.println(contentParts[2]);
System.out.print("change the name >> ");
in = scan.nextLine();
// edits the scanned content from the file.
String finalContent = "|" + in + "|" + contentParts[2];
System.out.println(finalContent);
file = new File(filepath);
fscan = new Scanner(file);
// scans the original record and pastes it in a new template file.
try {
pw = new PrintWriter(new FileOutputStream(tempPath));
if(linecount == 1) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
pw.println(finalContent);
while(fscan.hasNextLine()) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
pw.println(content);
}
}
else if (linecount > 1) {
for (int i = 0; i < linecount - 1; i++) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
pw.println(content);
}
pw.println(finalContent);
content = fscan.nextLine();
while (fscan.hasNextLine()) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
pw.println(content);
}
}
}
catch(FileNotFoundException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
finally {
pw.close();
fscan.close();
}
// deletes the original record
file.delete();
} // end of method
} // script test class end

Although, I made a test program that successfully deletes a file.

public class delete {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
File file = new File("helloworld.txt");
String in;
System.out.println("Press ENTER to DELETE file.");
in = scan.nextLine();
file.delete();
} // main method end
} // program end

My file path is right and I don't really know what causes the problem. Is there a solution to fix this?

Explanation

file.delete() does not throw an error if it failed. And it failed here, as indicated by its return value being false.

Execute Files.delete(file.toPath()) instead and you will see the exact error reason, which is:

> Exception in thread "main" java.nio.file.FileSystemException: D:\Programming\Java\Program - Script Test\files\record.txt: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
> at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.translateToIOException(WindowsException.java:92)
> at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.rethrowAsIOException(WindowsException.java:103)
> at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsException.rethrowAsIOException(WindowsException.java:108)
> at java.base/sun.nio.fs.WindowsFileSystemProvider.implDelete(WindowsFileSystemProvider.java:274)
> at java.base/sun.nio.fs.AbstractFileSystemProvider.delete(AbstractFileSystemProvider.java:105)
> at java.base/java.nio.file.Files.delete(Files.java:1146)
> at Laboratory.main(Laboratory.java:123)

So

> The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

Because you still have a scanner to the file open, you are blocking yourself from deleting it. Close the scanner and it will work.

Your code opens two (not one) scanner to file, one at the beginning:

Scanner fscan = new Scanner(file);

which you use during your initial loop:

for (int i = 0; i < linecount; i++) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
}

and then later on you create a second one:

fscan = new Scanner(file);

which you also close during your finally block:

fscan.close();

But you did never close the first scanner.

Solution

Add

fscan.close();

After the initial loop:

for(int i = 0; i < linecount; i++) {
content = fscan.nextLine();
}
fscan.close();

and the file.delete() will succeed.

NIO

As explained, file.delete() is a poorly designed method. Prefer Files.delete(path).

In general, if you do not have a good reason to use the old cumbersome file IO library, dont. Use NIO instead (Java 7+).