Develop Reference

Directory.EnumerateFiles method: How to enumerate files in specified subdirectories?

Assume the following directory structure. "C:\Genre" and the "Genre" directory having several subdirectories: "Rock", "Pop", "Metal", "Jazz".
How would I tweak the following statement to search in "Rock" and "Metal" subdirectories only?
var myFiles = Directory.
EnumerateFiles("C:\Genre", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).
Where(s => s.EndsWith(".jpg") || s.EndsWith(".gif"));

I'd say the clean way would be search each directory you want, and then add them up in the myFiles
var rockFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles("c:\Genre\Rock", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).Where(s => s.EndsWith(".jpg") || s.EndsWith(".gif"));
var metalFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles("c:\Genre\Metal", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).Where(s => s.EndsWith(".jpg") || s.EndsWith(".gif"));
var myFiles = RockFiles.Concat(MetalFiles);
Now, if you want a generic way to do so, that would be a different story, and a bit more complex one :)

Please consider some implementation like this one:
public static class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
var directoryPaths = new List<string>
{
#"C:\root\path_1",
#"C:\root\path_2",
#"C:\root\path_3"
// …
};
var searchPatterns = new List<string>
{
"*.jpg",
"*.gif"
};
var filePaths = directoryPaths
.SelectMany(directoryPath =>
EnumerateFiles(directoryPath, searchPatterns, SearchOption.AllDirectories))
.ToList()
.AsReadOnly();
// …
}
private static IEnumerable<string> EnumerateFiles(
string path,
IEnumerable<string> searchPatterns,
SearchOption searchOption)
{
var filePaths = searchPatterns.SelectMany(
searchPattern => Directory.EnumerateFiles(path, searchPattern, searchOption));
return filePaths;
}
}

Use Concat in Linq to combine the files in two directories.
var rockFiles = Directory.
EnumerateFiles("C:\Genre\Rock", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
var metalFiles = Directory.
EnumerateFiles("C:\Genre\Metal", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
var myFiles = rockFile
.Concat(metalFiles)
.Where(s => s.EndsWith(".jpg") || s.EndsWith(".gif"));

You could use two arrays for the extensions and the Path-class:
var myFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(#"C:\Temp\Genre", "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Where(fn => genres.Contains(Path.GetFileName(Path.GetDirectoryName(fn)), StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)
&& extensions.Contains(Path.GetExtension(fn), StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
Path.GetFileName(Path.GetDirectoryName(fn)) returns the folder-name of a file-path.

Find multiple files in the same directory

I'm trying to find, giving a path, a list of files that have same filename but different extensions (.bak and .dwg) in the same directory.
I have this code:
String[] FileNames = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).Where(s => s.EndsWith(".bak") || s.EndsWith(".dwg")).ToArray();
var queryDupNames = from f in FileNames
group f by Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(f) into g
where g.Count() > 1
select new { Name = g.Key, FileNames = g };
This works great to locate files with the same filename but in the whole system. I need only to obtain those that are in the same directory.
For example:
- Dir1\filename1.bak
- Dir1\filename1.dwg
- Dir1\filename2.bak
- Dir1\filename2.dwg
- Dir1\filename3.dwg
- DiferentDir\filename1.bak
- DiferentDir\filename1.dwg
- DiferentDir\filename3.dwg
The result should be:
- Dir1\filename1.bak
- Dir1\filename1.dwg
- Dir1\filename2.bak
- Dir1\filename2.dwg
- DiferentDir\filename1.bak
- DiferentDir\filename1.dwg
But with my code, filename3 is also included due to
g.count() > 1
it's true. It's grouping by only filename... I tried to fix with this code but I got 0 results:
String[] FileNames = Directory.GetFiles(path, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).Where(s => s.EndsWith(".bak") || s.EndsWith(".dwg")).ToArray();
var queryDupNames = from f in FileNames
group f by new { path = Path.GetLongPath(f), filen = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(f) } into g
where g.Count() > 1
select new { Name = g.Key, FileNames = g };
Any help or clue?
Thanks

System.IO.Path doesn't have a GetLongPath method. I suspect you are using an external library like AlphaFS. In any case, GetLongPath returns the full file path, not the path of the file's folder.
The file's folder path is returned by GetDirectoryName both in System.IO and other libraries like AlphaFS. The following snippet will return only Dir1\filename1, Dir1\filename2 and DifferentDir\filename1
var files = new[]
{
#"c:\Dir1\filename1.bak",
#"c:\Dir1\filename1.dwg",
#"c:\Dir1\filename2.bak",
#"c:\Dir1\filename2.dwg",
#"c:\Dir1\filename3.dwg",
#"c:\DiferentDir\filename1.bak",
#"c:\DiferentDir\filename1.dwg",
#"c:\DiferentDir\filename3.dwg",
};
var duplicates = from file in files
group file by new
{
Folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(file),
Name = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file)
} into g
where g.Count()>1
select new
{
Name = g.Key,
Files = g.ToArray()
};

first find all folders.
then for each folder find all the files with same name but different extension.
something like this:
var list = new List<string>();
foreach (var subDirectory in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(#"C:\Temp"))
{
var files = Directory.EnumerateFiles(subDirectory);
var repeated = files.Select(Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension)
.GroupBy(x => x)
.Where(g => g.Count() > 1)
.Select(y => y.Key);
list.AddRange(repeated);
}
tested on .net 4.6

Find First File in a Branching Directory

I'm trying to find the first .dcm in a directory tree then get the first full path (a/a/a/123.dcm) . However ignoring directories where the ie .dcm is not found.
example:
a/a/a/123.dcm
a/a/a/1234.dcm
a/a/a/12345.dcm
a/a/b/23.dcm
a/a/b/234.dcm
a/a/b/2345.dcm
a/a/c/23.dcm
a/a/c/234.dcm
a/a/c/2345.dcm
Answer should be: a/a/a/123.dcm, a/a/b/23.dcm and a/a/c/23.dcm
I tried:
var files = Directory.GetFiles(inputDir, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Where(s => s.EndsWith(".dcm")).ToArray();
var dir = Directory.GetDirectories(inputDir, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).ToArray();
var biggest = files.First();
foreach (var item in dir)
{
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(item);
var q = from i in di.GetFiles("*.dcm", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
select i.Name;
var qq = q.First();
foreach (var items in qq)
{
Console.WriteLine(items);
}
}
However what I get is the answer for five directories. Answer:
a/a/a/123.dcm
a/a/a/123.dcm
a/a/a/123.dcm
a/a/b/23.dcm
a/a/c/23.dcm
I’m just wondering if there’s a simpler way to do this using LINQ or something else? Thank you so much for your help. Cheers.

Here's a LINQ version:
var inputDir = #"c:\\temp";
var files = Directory
.EnumerateFiles(inputDir, "*.dcm", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Select(f => new FileInfo(f))
.GroupBy(f => f.Directory.FullName, d => d, (d, f) => new { Directory = d, FirstFile = f.ToList().First() })
.ToList();
files.ForEach(f => Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", f.Directory, f.FirstFile));

Directory.GetFiles get today's files only

There is nice function in .NET Directory.GetFiles, it's simple to use it when I need to get all files from directory.
Directory.GetFiles("c:\\Files")
But how (what pattern) can I use to get only files that created time have today if there are a lot of files with different created time?
Thanks!

For performance, especially if the directory search is likely to be large, the use of Directory.EnumerateFiles(), which lazily enumerates over the search path, is preferable to Directory.GetFiles(), which eagerly enumerates over the search path, collecting all matches before filtering any:
DateTime today = DateTime.Now.Date ;
FileInfo[] todaysFiles = new DirectoryInfo(#"c:\foo\bar")
.EnumerateFiles()
.Select( x => {
x.Refresh();
return x;
})
.Where( x => x.CreationTime.Date == today || x.LastWriteTime == today )
.ToArray()
;
Note that the the properties of FileSystemInfo and its subtypes can be (and are) cached, so they do not necessarily reflect current reality on the ground. Hence, the call to Refresh() to ensure the data is correct.

Try this:
var todayFiles = Directory.GetFiles("path_to_directory")
.Where(x => new FileInfo(x).CreationTime.Date == DateTime.Today.Date);

You need to get the directoryinfo for the file
public List<String> getTodaysFiles(String folderPath)
{
List<String> todaysFiles = new List<String>();
foreach (String file in Directory.GetFiles(folderPath))
{
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(file);
if (di.CreationTime.ToShortDateString().Equals(DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()))
todaysFiles.Add(file);
}
return todaysFiles;
}

You could use this code:
var directory = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\MyDirectory");
var myFile = (from f in directory.GetFiles()
orderby f.LastWriteTime descending
select f).First();
// or...
var myFile = directory.GetFiles()
.OrderByDescending(f => f.LastWriteTime)
.First();
see here: How to find the most recent file in a directory using .NET, and without looping?

using System.Linq;
DirectoryInfo info = new DirectoryInfo("");
FileInfo[] files = info.GetFiles().OrderBy(p => p.CreationTime).ToArray();
foreach (FileInfo file in files)
{
// DO Something...
}
if you wanted to break it down to a specific date you could try this using a filter
var files = from c in directoryInfo.GetFiles()
where c.CreationTime >dateFilter
select c;

You should be able to get through this:
var loc = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\");
var fileList = loc.GetFiles().Where(x => x.CreationTime.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") == currentDate);
foreach (FileInfo fileItem in fileList)
{
//Process the file
}

var directory = new DirectoryInfo(Path.GetDirectoryName(#"--DIR Path--"));
DateTime from_date = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-5);
DateTime to_date = DateTime.Now.AddDays(5);
//For Today
var filesLst = directory.GetFiles().AsEnumerable()
.Where(file.CreationTime.Date == DateTime.Now.Date ).ToArray();
//For date range + specific file extension
var filesLst = directory.GetFiles().AsEnumerable()
.Where(file => file.CreationTime.Date >= from_date.Date && file.CreationTime.Date <= to_date.Date && file.Extension == ".txt").ToArray();
//To get ReadOnly files from directory
var filesLst = directory.GetFiles().AsEnumerable()
.Where(file => file.IsReadOnly == true).ToArray();
//To get files based on it's size
int fileSizeInKB = 100;
var filesLst = directory.GetFiles().AsEnumerable()
.Where(file => (file.Length)/1024 > fileSizeInKB).ToArray();

.NET / C# - Proper Method to Use Here - LINQ

I'm a total newb to LINQ.
Here is the code I have so far:
public class Folder
{
public Folder(string path)
{
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(path);
IList<FileInfo> fis = new List<FileInfo>();
files.SomeMethod(x => fis.Add(new FileInfo(x)));
}
}
What is the correct method name to replace SomeMethod with this to get it to work?
I'd basically just like a more concise way of writing a loop here.

sounds like you're looking for something like the ForEach function in List. You could do the following...
files.ToList().ForEach(x => fis.Add(new FileInfo(x)));
or you could do something like this as a more direct approach
IList<FileInfo> fis = (from f in Directory.GetFiles(path)
select new FileInfo(f)).ToList();
or...
IList<FileInfo> fis = Directory.GetFiles(path).Select(s => new FileInfo(s)).ToList();
// or
IList<FileInfo> fis = Directory.GetFiles(path)
.Select(s => new FileInfo(s))
.ToList();
Or - without using any linq at all, how about this one?...
IList<FileInfo> fis = new List<FileInfo>(new DirectoryInfo(path).GetFiles());

You could use the static ForEach method:
Array.ForEach(x => fis.Add(new FileInfo(x)));
However, you can easily replace the entire function with this one line:
IList<FileInfo> fis = Directory.GetFiles(path).
Select(f => new FileInfo(f)).ToList();

var fis =
new List<FileInfo>(
from f in Directory.GetFiles(path) select new FileInfo(f));

There's already a DirectoryInfo method to do this:
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(path);
FileInfo[] fis = di.GetFileSystemInfos();
If you need it to be a List, use Enumerable.ToList.

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(path);
IList<FileInfo> fis = new List<FileInfo>();
Array.ForEach(files, x => fis.Add(new FileInfo(x)));