Develop Reference

How to get the names of a subfolder in c#

I have a folder path with me something like "c:/videos". it contains subfolders like car, bike, bus ... etc. need to get only the sub folder name and store in a string array.
And please note i don't need a full sub folder path
out needed like:- car, bike, bus
not like c:/videos/car
c:/videos/bike
c:/videos/bus

You have to iterate over the SubDirectories.
And replace the startpath c:\videoswith an empty string:
var rootDir = #"c:\videos";
DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo(rootDir);
var dirs = new System.Collections.Generic.List<string>();
foreach (var dir in directoryInfo.GetDirectories())
{
dirs.Add(dir.Name.Replace($"{rootDir}\\", ""));
}
var result = dirs.ToArray();

You can use GetDirectories method
var directories = Directory.GetDirectories(#"c:/videos");
this will give you a string array of all the subdirectories and then you can call Path.GetDirectoryName() to get the folder name
List<string> subfolders = List<string>();
var directories = Directory.GetDirectories(#"c:/videos");
foreach(var directory in directories)
{
subfolders.Add(Path.GetDirectoryName(directory));
}
var result = subfolders.ToArray();

string yourPath= #"C:\videos";
// Get all subdirectories
string[] subDirs = Directory.GetDirectories(root);
foreach (string subdirectory in subdirectoryEntries)
LoadSubDirs(subdirectory);
List<string> subfolders = List<string>();
private void LoadSubDirs(string dir)
{
subfolders.Add(Path.GetDirectoryName(dir));
string[] subdirectoryEntries = Directory.GetDirectories(dir);
foreach (string subdirectory in subdirectoryEntries)
{
LoadSubDirs(subdirectory);
}
}

Delete TMP file in a local folder

I have these files in my local folder.
As you can see from the image above, there is a TMP file in it. I don't know how it is generated but I believe it is a useless temp file, so I try to delete it this way:
foreach (var item in await ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.GetFilesAsync())
if (item.Name.EndsWith(".TMP"))
await item.DeleteAsync();
However, using neither GetFilesAsync() nor GetItemsAsync() finds the temp file. The former gives me the json files only and the latter finds everything but the tmp file.
How should I find and delete it?

You could use the following code to detect the hidden file where in the sandbox(It only works in sandbox).
public static class ParseDir
{
public static FileInfo[] GetFilesFromDirectory(string DirName, string pattern, bool Recursive)
{
if (!Directory.Exists(DirName))
throw new Exception("No such Directory.");
DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(DirName);
SearchOption Recur = Recursive ? SearchOption.AllDirectories : SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly;
return dirInfo.GetFiles(pattern, Recur);
}
public static FileInfo[] GetHiddenOnlyFiles(FileInfo[] Files)
{
List<FileInfo> result = new List<FileInfo>();
foreach (FileInfo file in Files)
if ((file.Attributes & System.IO.FileAttributes.Hidden) == System.IO.FileAttributes.Hidden)
result.Add(file);
return result.ToArray();
}
}
Usage
FileInfo[] filesInS = ParseDir.GetFilesFromDirectory(ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.Path, "*.*", false);
FileInfo[] hiddenFiles = ParseDir.GetHiddenOnlyFiles(filesInS);
hiddenFiles.First().Delete();

How to copy more than one folder into another folder?

Now here is the problem:
I have a lot of code that all does the same thing. That is, it copies the contents of two folders into a destination folder and merges them in the destination folder. My problem is, I cannot find out (after much Googling) how to actually copy the source directories + contents as opposed to just its contents and sub folders which then end up merged.
It may be how I'm obtaining the directories: I use a Folder Selection Dialog, add the path name to a listbox (To display) and then create a list of (string) directories from the items in the listbox.
Here is the code so far. (Some is from MSDN)
public static void CopyAll(DirectoryInfo source, DirectoryInfo target)
{
if (source.FullName.ToLower() == target.FullName.ToLower())
{
return;
}
// Check if the target directory exists, if not, create it.
if (Directory.Exists(target.FullName) == false)
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(target.FullName);
}
// Copy each file into it's new directory.
foreach (FileInfo fi in source.GetFiles())
{
fi.CopyTo(Path.Combine(target.ToString(), fi.Name), true);
}
// Copy each subdirectory using recursion.
foreach (DirectoryInfo diSourceSubDir in source.GetDirectories())
{
DirectoryInfo nextTargetSubDir =
target.CreateSubdirectory(diSourceSubDir.Name);
CopyAll(diSourceSubDir, nextTargetSubDir);
}
}
//This is inside a button click Method
List<string> pathList = new List<string>();
pathList = lstBox.Items.Cast<String>().ToList();
string sourceDirectory;
string targetDirectory;
DirectoryInfo dirSource;
DirectoryInfo dirTarget;
for (int i = 0 ; i < pathList.Count; i++)
{
sourceDirectory = pathList.ElementAt(i);
targetDirectory = browserSave.SelectedPath; //browserSave is the Folder Selection Dialog
dirSource = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDirectory);
dirTarget = new DirectoryInfo(targetDirectory);
CopyAll(dirSource, dirTarget);
}
Annoyingly C# has no Directory.Copy function which would be extremely useful.
Recap.
I Select Folder 1.
I select Folder 2.
I Select Destination Folder.
I Press OK.
Expected Result: Destination Folder has two folders, Folder 1 and Folder 2 inside. Both has all files inside.
Actual Result: Destination Folder has loose files merged, and sub directories of source folders intact. (Which is whats annoying)
I hope this is enough info for you professionals to help with.

The problem is you are never making a new target for your destination -- this will make a new target with the same name as the source for each iteration of the loop and then copy to that target.
for (int i = 0 ; i < pathList.Count; i++)
{
sourceDirectory = pathList.ElementAt(i);
targetDirectory = browserSave.SelectedPath; //browserSave is the Folder Selection Dialog
dirSource = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDirectory);
string targetPath = target.Fullname+
Path.DirectorySeparatorChar+
sourceDirectory.Split(Path.DirectorySeparatorChar).Last());
Directory.CreateDirectory(targetPath);
dirTarget = new DirectoryInfo(targetPath);
CopyAll(dirSource, dirTarget);
}
caveat I did not test so I might have typos, but you get the idea.

Instead of DirectoryInfo pass string as a parameter. See the code below.
private void DirectoryCopy(
string sourceDirName, string destDirName, bool copySubDirs)
{
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDirName);
DirectoryInfo[] dirs = dir.GetDirectories();
// If the source directory does not exist, throw an exception.
if (!dir.Exists)
{
throw new DirectoryNotFoundException(
"Source directory does not exist or could not be found: "
+ sourceDirName);
}
// If the destination directory does not exist, create it.
if (!Directory.Exists(destDirName))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(destDirName);
}
// Get the file contents of the directory to copy.
FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo file in files)
{
// Create the path to the new copy of the file.
string temppath = Path.Combine(destDirName, file.Name);
// Copy the file.
file.CopyTo(temppath, false);
}
// If copySubDirs is true, copy the subdirectories.
if (copySubDirs)
{
foreach (DirectoryInfo subdir in dirs)
{
// Create the subdirectory.
string temppath = Path.Combine(destDirName, subdir.Name);
// Copy the subdirectories.
DirectoryCopy(subdir.FullName, temppath, copySubDirs);
}
}
}
In main function.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<string> directoryNames = new List<string>() // For multiple source folders
{
"C:\\Folder1", "C:\\Folder2"
};
string destDirName = "C:\\Folder3";
foreach (string sourceDirName in directoryNames)
{
DirectoryCopy(sourceDirName, destDirName, true)
}
}

Try the following. You'll obviously need to set the source and destination folders accordingly when you invoke action. Also I would suggest that you do not embed any logic in event handlers.
Hope this helps.
Action<string, string> action = null;
action = (source,dest) =>
{
if(Directory.Exists(source))
{
DirectoryInfo sInfo = new DirectoryInfo(source);
if (!Directory.Exists(dest))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(dest);
}
Array.ForEach(sInfo.GetFiles("*"), a => File.Copy(a.FullName, Path.Combine(dest,a.Name)));
foreach (string dir in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(source))
{
string sSubDirPath = dir.Substring(source.Length+1,dir.Length-source.Length-1);
string dSubDirPath = Path.Combine(dest,sSubDirPath);
action(dir, dSubDirPath);
}
}
};
action(#"C:\source", #"C:\dest");

This will help you to solve your problem.This function is a generic recursive function for copy folder with or not sub folders with merging.
public static void DirectoryCopy(string sourceDirPath, string destDirName, bool isCopySubDirs)
{
// Get the subdirectories for the specified directory.
DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo(sourceDirPath);
DirectoryInfo[] directories = directoryInfo.GetDirectories();
if (!directoryInfo.Exists)
{
throw new DirectoryNotFoundException("Source directory does not exist or could not be found: "
+ sourceDirPath);
}
DirectoryInfo parentDirectory = Directory.GetParent(directoryInfo.FullName);
destDirName = System.IO.Path.Combine(parentDirectory.FullName, destDirName);
// If the destination directory doesn't exist, create it.
if (!Directory.Exists(destDirName))
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(destDirName);
}
// Get the files in the directory and copy them to the new location.
FileInfo[] files = directoryInfo.GetFiles();
foreach (FileInfo file in files)
{
string tempPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(destDirName, file.Name);
if (File.Exists(tempPath))
{
File.Delete(tempPath);
}
file.CopyTo(tempPath, false);
}
// If copying subdirectories, copy them and their contents to new location using recursive function.
if (isCopySubDirs)
{
foreach (DirectoryInfo item in directories)
{
string tempPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(destDirName, item.Name);
DirectoryCopy(item.FullName, tempPath, isCopySubDirs);
}
}
}

How can recursively search directories with multiple wildcards?

Using C# (.NET), how can I search a file system given a directory search mask like this: (?)
\\server\Scanner\images\*Images\*\*_*
For example, I need to first find all top-level directories:
\\server\Scanner\images\Job1Images
\\server\Scanner\images\Job2Images
...then I need to procede further with the search mask:
\\server\Scanner\images\Job1Images\*\*_*
\\server\Scanner\images\Job2Images\*\*_*
This doesn't seem too complicated but I can't figure it out for the life of me...
As mentioned above, I'm using C# and .NET. The search can be trying to locate directories or files. (i.e. *.txt, or <*Directory>)

Like this:
Top Level Directories:
//get Top level
string[] TopLevel = Directory.GetDirectories(path);
And then you will have to do a resursive function of this folders using wildcard pattern,
for example:
// Only get subdirectories that begin with the letter "p."
string pattern = "p*";
string[] dirs = folder.GetDirectories(path, pattern);
I suggest you play with wildcards to get the array output and you will figure out
which is the best way, if using resursive function or directly quering paths.

Edit: Ahh, new functionality with .NET 4 so you don't have to do a recursive function (Thanks Matthew Brubaker)
IEnumerable<String> matchingFilePaths2 = System.IO.Directory.EnumerateFiles(#"C:\some folder to start in", filePatternToMatchOn, System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories);
First Answer:
//get all files that have an underscore - searches all folders under the start folder
List<String> matchingFilePaths = new List<string>();
String filePatternToMatchOn = "*_*";
FileUtilities.GetAllFilesMatchingPattern(#"C:\some folder to start in", ref matchingFilePaths, filePatternToMatchOn);
...
public static void GetAllFilesMatchingPattern(String pathToGetFilesIn, ref List<String> fullFilePaths, String searchPattern)
{
//get all files in current directory that match the pattern
String[] filePathsInCurrentDir = Directory.GetFiles(pathToGetFilesIn, searchPattern);
foreach (String fullPath in filePathsInCurrentDir)
{
fullFilePaths.Add(fullPath);
}
//call this method recursively for all directories
String[] directories = Directory.GetDirectories(pathToGetFilesIn);
foreach (String path in directories)
{
GetAllFilesMatchingPattern(path, ref fullFilePaths, searchPattern);
}
}

public static IEnumerable<string> GetImages()
{
//For each "*Image" directory
foreach (var jobFolder in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(#"\\server\Scanner\images", "*Images"))
{
//For each first level subdirectory
foreach (var jobSubFolder in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(jobFolder))
{
//Enumerate each file containing a '_'
foreach (var filePath in Directory.EnumerateFiles(jobSubFolder, "*_*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly))
{
yield return filePath;
}
}
}
}
Only the files from the first level subdirectories of each "*Image" directory are enumerated.
Finally you can use it with:
foreach (var path in GetImages())
{
Console.WriteLine(path);
}

There is a C# procedure where you can search folder by path pattern with wildcards like * and ?.
Example if path pattern C:\Folder?*\Folder2 is passed to the procedru, then a list of folder path will be returned
C:\Folder1\A\Folder2
C:\FolderA\B\Folder2
...
and so on
static List<string> GetFoldersByPathPattern(string folderPathPattern)
{
List<string> directories = new List<string>();
directories.Add("");
string[] folderParts = folderPathPattern.Split(new char[] { '\\' }, StringSplitOptions.None);
foreach (string folderPart in folderParts)
{
if (folderPart.Contains('*') || folderPart.Contains('?'))
{
List<string> newDirectories = new List<string>();
foreach (string directory in directories)
{
foreach (string newDirectory in Directory.GetDirectories(directory, folderPart))
{
newDirectories.Add(newDirectory);
}
}
directories = newDirectories;
}
else
{
for (int i = 0; i < directories.Count(); i++)
{
directories[i] = directories[i] + folderPart + "\\";
}
}
}
return directories;
}

Delete all files and folders in multiple directory but leave the directoy

Well I like this nice piece of code right here it seems to work awesomely but I can't seem to add any more directories to it
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\temp");
foreach(FileInfo files in dir.GetFiles())
{
files.Delete();
}
foreach (DirectoryInfo dirs in dir.GetDirectories())
{
dirs.Delete(true);
}
I would also like to add in special folders as well like History and cookies and such how would I go about doing that (I would like to include at least 4-5 different folders)

Perhaps something like this would help. I did not test it.
public void DeleteDirectoryFolders(DirectoryInfo dirInfo){
foreach (DirectoryInfo dirs in dirInfo.GetDirectories())
{
dirs.Delete(true);
}
}
public void DeleteDirectoryFiles(DirectoryInfo dirInfo) {
foreach(FileInfo files in dirInfo.GetFiles())
{
files.Delete();
}
}
public void DeleteDirectoryFilesAndFolders(string dirName) {
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(dirName);
DeleteDirectoryFiles(dir)
DeleteDirectoryFolders(dir)
}
public void main() {
List<string> DirectoriesToDelete;
DirectoriesToDelete.add("c:\temp");
DirectoriesToDelete.add("c:\temp1");
DirectoriesToDelete.add("c:\temp2");
DirectoriesToDelete.add("c:\temp3");
foreach (string dirName in DirectoriesToDelete) {
DeleteDirectoryFilesAndFolders(dirName);
}
}

Here's a recursive function that will delete all files in a given directory and navigate down the directory structure. A pattern string can be supplied to only work with files of a given extension, as per your comment to another answer.
Action<string,string> fileDeleter = null;
fileDeleter = (directoryPath, pattern) =>
{
string[] files;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(pattern))
files = Directory.GetFiles(directoryPath, pattern);
else
files = Directory.GetFiles(directoryPath);
foreach (string file in files)
{
File.Delete(file);
}
string[] directories = Directory.GetDirectories(directoryPath);
foreach (string dir in directories)
fileDeleter(dir, pattern);
};
string path = #"C:\some_folder\";
fileDeleter(path, "*.bmp");
Directories are otherwise left alone, and this can obviously be used with an array or list of strings to work with multiple initial directory paths.
Here is the same code rewritten as a standard function, also with the recursion as a parameter option.
public void DeleteFilesFromDirectory(string directoryPath, string pattern, bool includeSubdirectories)
{
string[] files;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(pattern))
files = Directory.GetFiles(directoryPath, pattern);
else
files = Directory.GetFiles(directoryPath);
foreach (string file in files)
{
File.Delete(file);
}
if (includeSubdirectories)
{
string[] directories = Directory.GetDirectories(directoryPath);
foreach (string dir in directories)
DeleteFilesFromDirectory(dir, pattern, includeSubdirectories);
}
}