Determining binary/text file type in Java?

Question

Namely, how would you tell an archive (jar/rar/etc.) file from a textual (xml/txt, encoding-independent) one?

Answer 1

Using Java 7 Files class http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/nio/file/Files.html#probeContentType(java.nio.file.Path)

boolean isBinaryFile(File f) throws IOException {
        String type = Files.probeContentType(f.toPath());
        if (type == null) {
            //type couldn't be determined, assume binary
            return true;
        } else if (type.startsWith("text")) {
            return false;
        } else {
            //type isn't text
            return true;
        }
    }