String to boolean. Help needed.

Question

Hello ppl. Im here concerning my method for deleting files. I've got a bit of a difficulty....
The method returns a String, becuase if an exception occurs it will return it, however if no exception occurs it returns true, as a String tho:
return "true";
Is there anyway to parse a string to a boolean value inside the method? or the invoking method?
Method:
public String delFile(String file){
String error = null;
File f = null;
if(file!=null){
try {
f = new File(file);
f.delete();
} catch(SecurityException se){
error = se.getMessage();
if(error!=null) return error;
return "true";
Help appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Can I implement the custom exception method in the
same class as the delFile() method?I think you got me wrong. You could do it like this:
(1) Define your special exception class, which should
be defined in a seperate file ("MyFileException.java")
package myFileHandlingPackage;
import java.io.*;
public class MyFileException extends Exception{
public final static int FILE_NOT_FOUND = 0;
public final static int FILE_NAME_NULL = 1;
public final static int NO_DELETION_PERMISSION = 2;
private final static String[] messages;
static{
   messages[] = new String[3];
   messages[0] = "The specified file could be found";
   messages[1] = "The file name was not specified";
   messages[2] = "You have no permission to delete the file";
private int errorCode = -1;
private File errorFile;
public MyFileException(){
   super();
public MyFileException(String msg){
   super(msg);
public MyFileException(int errorCode, File errFile, String msg){
   MyFileException(msg);
   this.errorCode = errorCode;
   this.errorFile = errFile;
public String getNiceMessage(){
   String niceMsg = "";
   if(errorCode != -1 && errorCode < 3){
     niceMsg += messages[errorCode];
     niceMsg += " ";
     niceMsg += errFile.getName();
   return niceMsg;
}(2) import this class in your JSP and in the file you defined your
delFile() method.
(3) now you can use a catch(MyFileException mfe){...} in your JSP
Hope that helps
Adrian