Develop Reference

c# : find file with variable part in its name

I have a folder location corresponding to the variable "path".
In this folder, I have a lot of files, but only one called "common.build.9897ytyt4541". What I want to do is to read the content of this file, so with the following, it's working :
string text = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(path, "common.build.9897ytyt4541.js"));
The problem is, that the part between "build" and "js", change at each source code compilation, and I am getting a new hash, so I would like to replace the previous code, to have something working at each build, whatever the hash is, I thought to regex but this is not working :
string text = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(path, #"common.build.*.js"));
Thanks in advance for your help

If you know you'll only find one file you can write something like this (plus error handling):
using System.Linq;
...
var filePath = Directory.GetFiles(path, "common.build.*.js").FirstOrDefault();
string text = File.ReadAllText(filePath);

No, you need to use the exact filename with using File.ReadAllText. Instead, you need to search for the file, for this you can use Directory.GetFiles, for example:
var matches = Directory.GetFiles(path, "common.build.*.js");
if(matches.Count() == 0)
{
//File not found
}
else if(matches.Count() > 1)
{
//Multiple matches found
}
else
{
string text = File.ReadAllText(matches[0]);
}

GEt only filename instead of whole path

I am making project on getting all text files from a selected drive. The thing is I am getting names of all text files along with path but all I need is name. I don't want to even get the extension, all I want is name of that text file. I have searched all over the internet but couldn't find the right answer. I am storing all those names in a listbox. here is my code:
String[] dir1 = System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(#"F:\");
for (int i = 0; i < dir1.Length; i++)
{
FileAttributes attributes = File.GetAttributes(dir1[i]);
if ((attributes & FileAttributes.Hidden) != fileAttributes.Hidden)
{
string folder = #""+ dir1[i];
txtfiles = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.txt");
listBox1.Items.AddRange(txtfiles);
}
}
How can I get only names, instead of whole path and extension?

The Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension method will do this for you.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.path.getfilenamewithoutextension(v=vs.110).aspx
Returns the file name of the specified path string without the extension.
Pass the results of GetFiles into the method and it should return what you need.

Take a look at System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension()
You could do something like
txtfiles = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.txt");
var fileNames = txtfiles.Select(System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension).ToList();

You need to use Path.GetFileName method which will just extract the file name only from the path back, so what you can do is project the txtfiles to get the collection of just filename like:
listBox1.Items.AddRange(txtfiles.Select(file=>Path.GetFileName(file));
and if you only need path, not actually reading them, you can use EnumerateFiles method which would be better in memory performance which would be :
listBox1.Items.AddRange(txtDirectory.EnumerateFiles(folder, "*.txt")
.Select(file=>Path.GetFileName(file))
);
Also if you only need name of file without extension then you can do as Valuator answer suggested.

How to search through multiple UNC paths for a partial file

This is a lot, I know; trying to dig myself out of a hole at work.
Basically, I have many files across multiple servers that I need to get a hold of. Right now I'm running in to two problems, 1) I can't figure out the best way to search through multiple UNC paths. 2) I'm having to search by a partial name, it's possible that there is more than one file that matches, but I only want to use the file created in the last three days.
Here is my code so far. I'm not looking for someone to write it, but I would appreciate any logistical pointers.
uncPath1 = "\\server\share\";
string partial = "2002265467";
DateTime date = Convert.ToDateTime("10/5/2015");
DirectoryInfo a = new DirectoryInfo(uncPath1);
FileInfo[] interactionlist = a.GetFiles("*" + partial + "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (FileInfo f in interactionlist)
{
string fullname = f.FullName;
Console.WriteLine(fullname);
Console.Read();
}

You mentioned that you need to find only files made in the past 3 days. Instead of using Convert.ToDateTime and hard-coding the date in, you should use DateTime.Today.AddDays( -3 ) to get the date three days before the day the program is being run.
And of course, in your finding files method, compare the dates with something like:
DateTime time = DateTime.Today.AddDays( -3 );
if ( File.GetCreationTime( filePath ) > time ) {
// Add the file
}

1) You want to make a basic function that looks for a filespec in a single folder. You already wrote that in your code above, you just need to turn it into a function with parameters UNC path and filespec. Have the function take a third parameter of List<FileInfo> to add found files to.
2) If you need to search subfolders, create a function that will search a UNC path's subfolders by calling the function you wrote in #1, then getting a list of all folders, and calling itself for each folder found (and in turn, those calls will call for sub-subfolders, etc.) This is called recursion. Have this function take a List and add all found files to the List, by passing it to your #1 function.
3) Get the root UNC paths you want to search into a List or Array and then call foreach on them passing them, the filespec, and the intially empty List to the #2 function.
So:
bool FindFiles(string uncPath, string fileSpec, List<FileInfo> found);
bool FildFilesSubfolders(string uncPath, string fileSpec, List<FileInfo> found);
string fileSpec = "whatever";
string[] uncPaths = { "abc", "def" }; // etc
List<FileInfo> found = new List<FileInfo>();
foreach (string nextPath in uncPaths)
{
if (FindFilesSubfolders(nextPath, fileSpec, found))
break;
}
foreach (FileInfo f in found)
{
string fullname = f.FullName;
Console.WriteLine(fullname);
Console.Read();
}
One final thought: if you are searching subdirs and you are worried about two UNC paths that are essentially duplicates (e.g., c:\foo and c:\foo\foo2), you can use This method to check for paths within another path.
Edit: If you find something you are looking for and want to exit early, have the functions return a boolean meaning you found what you wanted to stop early. Then use break in your loops. I've edited the code.

File names matching "..\ThirdParty\dlls\*.dll"

Is there an easy way to get a list of filenames that matach a filename pattern including references to parent directory? What I want is for "..\ThirdParty\dlls\*.dll" to return a collection like ["..\ThirdParty\dlls\one.dll", "..\ThirdParty\dlls\two.dll", ...]
I can find several questions relating matching files names including full path, wildcards, but nothing that includes "..\" in the pattern. Directory.GetFiles explicitly disallows it.
What I want to do with the names is to include them in a zip archive, so if there is a zip library that can understand relative paths like this I am happier to use that.
The pattern(s) are coming from an input file, they are not known at compile time. They can get quite complex, e.g ..\src\..\ThirdParty\win32\*.dll so parsing is probably not feasible.
Having to put it in zip is also the reason I am not very keen on converting the pattern to fullpath, I do want the relative paths in zip.
EDIT: What I am looking for really is a C# equivalent of /bin/ls.

static string[] FindFiles(string path)
{
string directory = Path.GetDirectoryName(path); // seperate directory i.e. ..\ThirdParty\dlls
string filePattern = Path.GetFileName(path); // seperate file pattern i.e. *.dll
// if path only contains pattern then use current directory
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(directory))
directory = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
//uncomment the following line if you need absolute paths
//directory = Path.GetFullPath(directory);
if (!Directory.Exists(directory))
return new string[0];
var files = Directory.GetFiles(directory, filePattern);
return files;
}

There is the Path.GetFullPath() function that will convert from relative to absolute. You could use it on the path part.
string pattern = #"..\src\..\ThirdParty\win32\*.dll";
string relativeDir = Path.GetDirectoryName(pattern);
string absoluteDir = Path.GetFullPath(relativeDir);
string filePattern = Path.GetFileName(pattern);
foreach (string file in Directory.GetFiles(absoluteDir, filePattern))
{
}

If I understand you correctly you could use Directory.EnumerateFiles in combination with a regular expression like this (I haven't tested it though):
var matcher = new Regex(#"^\.\.\\ThirdParty\\dlls\\[^\\]+.dll$");
foreach (var file in Directory.EnumerateFiles("..", "*.dll", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
{
if (matcher.IsMatch(file))
yield return file;
}

File extension - c#

I have a directory that contains jpg,tif,pdf,doc and xls. The client DB conly contains the file names without extension. My app has to pick up the file and upload the file. One of the properties of the upload object is the file extension.
Is there a way of getting file extension if all i have is the path and name
eg:
C:\temp\somepicture.jpg is the file and the information i have through db is
c:\temp\somepicture

Use Directory.GetFiles(fileName + ".*"). If it returns just one file, then you find the file you need. If it returns more than one, you have to choose which to upload.

Something like this maybe:
DirectoryInfo D = new DirectoryInfo(path);
foreach (FileInfo fi in D.GetFiles())
{
if (Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fi.FullName) == whatever)
// do something
}

You could obtain a list of all of the files with that name, regardless of extension:
public string[] GetFileExtensions(string path)
{
System.IO.DirectoryInfo directory =
new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(path));
return directory.GetFiles(
System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(path) + ".*")
.Select(f => f.Extension).ToArray();
}

Obviously, if you have no other information and there are 2 files with the same name and different extensions, you can't do anything (e.g. there is somepicture.jpg and somepicture.png at the same time).
On the other hand, usually that won't be the case so you can simply use a search pattern (e.g. somepicture.*) to find the one and only (if you're lucky) file.

Search for files named somepicture.* in that folder, and upload any that matches ?

Get the lowest level folder for each path. For your example, you would have:
'c:\temp\'
Then find any files that start with your filename in that folder, in this case:
'somepicture'
Finally, grab the extension off the matching filename. If you have duplicates, you would have to handle that in a unique way.

You would have to use System.IO.Directory.GetFiles() and iterate through all the filenames. You will run into issues when you have a collision like somefile.jpg and somefile.tif.
Sounds like you have bigger issues than just this and you may want to make an argument to store the file extension in your database as well to remove the ambiguity.

you could do something like this perhaps....
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo("c:/temp/");
FileInfo[] rgFiles = di.GetFiles("somepicture.*");
foreach (FileInfo fi in rgFiles)
{
if(fi.Name.Contains("."))
{
string name = fi.Name.Split('.')[0].ToString();
string ext = fi.Name.Split('.')[1].ToString();
System.Console.WriteLine("Extension is: " + ext);
}
}

One more, with the assumption of no files with same name but different extension.
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(#"c:\temp", #"testasdadsadsas.*");
if (files.Length >= 1)
{
string fullFilenameAndPath = files[0];
Console.WriteLine(fullFilenameAndPath);
}

From the crippled file path you can get the directory path and the file name:
string path = Path.GetDirectoryName(filename);
string name = Path.GetFileName(filename);
Then you can get all files that matches the file name with any extension:
FileInfo[] found = new DirectoryInfo(path).GetFiles(name + ".*");
If the array contains one item, you have your match. If there is more than one item, you have to decide which one to use, or what to do with them.

All the pieces are here in the existing answers, but just trying to unify them into one answer for you - given the "guaranteed unique" declaration you're working with, you can toss in a FirstOrDefault since you don't need to worry about choosing among multiple potential matches.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var match = FindMatch(args[0]);
Console.WriteLine("Best match for {0} is {1}", args[0], match ?? "[None found]");
}
private static string FindMatch(string pathAndFilename)
{
return FindMatch(Path.GetDirectoryName(pathAndFilename), Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(pathAndFilename));
}
private static string FindMatch(string path, string filename)
{
return Directory.GetFiles(path, filename + ".*").FirstOrDefault();
}
Output:
> ConsoleApplication10 c:\temp\bogus
Best match for c:\temp\bogus is [None found]
> ConsoleApplication10 c:\temp\7z465
Best match for c:\temp\7z465 is c:\temp\7z465.msi
> ConsoleApplication10 c:\temp\boot
Best match for c:\temp\boot is c:\temp\boot.wim