Develop Reference

(C#) Getting a files properties and putting them in a message box

So I've used this site for some VBA stuff I did in the past and found some great help by other users' questions. Now I've begun using C# and am totally lost on how to get the details from a file. I will admit, I am completely new to C# and am having a pretty difficult time getting used to it.
What I'm trying to do is choose a directory (already have that in place with FolderBrowserDialog), and then grab all the names of the folders in that directory, and all of the subfolders.
To put it in to context, I want to go to my Music folder, and then be able to make a list of all the artists and albums in that directory in a textbox. Each album will be under the Artist folder, so the whole thing would read the name of one folder, then all the subfolders in that folder, then go back and move on to the next one.
Not sure if anyone will ask, but here is all the code I have:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void DirButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
FolderBrowserDialog fbd = new FolderBrowserDialog();
if (fbd.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK);
{
DirBox.Text = fbd.SelectedPath;
}
}
Any help is greatly appreciated and I'll try to understand your answer(s) as best as I can.
Thanks!

One of the many options would be to use Directory.GetDirectories, see docs
Your code could look something like this:
string[] dirs = Directory.GetDirectories(fbd.SelectedPath, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
Depending on the structure of your folders, you might need to use another SearchOption Enumeration - use 'AllDirectories' to do a recursive search, or TopDirectoryOnly to look only in the top directory, see docs
Now, if you don't need a recursive search you can use a simpler overload DirectoryInfo.GetDirectories as described here, sample follows:
string[] dirs = Directory.GetDirectories(fbd.SelectedPath);
Please note that you can do the same by using DirectoryInfo class instead of Directory class if you prefer to have an instance rather than working with statics, be sure to check out the docs

Extending OpenFileDialog to select folder and file simultaneously [duplicate]

I have posted - How to use OpenFileDialog to select a folder?, I couldn't find the correct answer.
So, I have changed my question.
I want to customize OpenFileDialog to select multiple folders and files. I tried to find a solution and could see some posts about it.
From the internet, I found the following project - https://github.com/scottwis/OpenFileOrFolderDialog.
However, while using this, I faced one problem. It uses the GetOpenFileName function and OPENFILENAME structure from MFC.
And OPENFILENAME has the member named "templateID".
It's the identifier for dialog template. And the sample project has the "res1.rc" file and, also have the templated dialog in it.
But I don't know How can I attach this file to my C# project?
Or is there any other perfect solution about - "How to customize OpenFileDialog to select multiple folders and files?"?

If you use the FileNames property instead of the FileName property, you get a string array of each file selected, you select multiple files using the shift key. Like so:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
OpenFileDialog x = new OpenFileDialog();
x.Multiselect = true;
x.ShowDialog();
string[] result = x.FileNames;
foreach (string y in result)
MessageBox.Show(y, "Selected Item", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information);
}
For files and folders you need to use the CommonOpenFileDialog included with the WinAPI, the particular class is here.

Try this:
openFileDialog.Multiselect = true;

You might not get a built in .Net control like that. Definitely the OpenFileDialog can not function as both File as well as Folder browser. You have two choices go for a third party tool like the one you found second make your own control. Surprisingly you might not find creating a very simple version of your own control very difficult.

OpenFileDialog - only display filenames that have no extensions

I have the following code in my C# program:
OpenFileDialog fDialog = new OpenFileDialog();
fDialog.Title = "Open a file";
fDialog.Filter =
"NCF files (*.ncf)|*.ncf|All files (*.*)|*.*|No Extensions (*.)|*.";
I want to be able to have the user pick from the following:
*.NCF (files with .NCF extension only)
**.* (all files)
and files that have no extensions such as:
filewithnoextension
I know ***.* will do this, but it also displays the .NCF, .TXT, and all other files in the same directory. I just want to be able to display filenames that have no extensions.
Filtering with *. does not do the trick. It works fine when doing it with a DOS window (dir *.) , but C# seems to ignore the *. filter.
Is there a way I can do this with C#?
Thanks.

I know this works:
fDialog.Filter = "No extension Files|" + null;
I haven't tested with multiple selections..
Altough this is an old post, I though it would benefit someone looking for a way to only display files with no extensions..

A readme file normally has an extension. I suppose you did, but did you check this folder option to see the extensions of known file types? Has it changed anything?
EDIT #1
Frankly, I doubt you'd be able to make the OpenFileDialog display files with no extension, as the Filter property is based on the extension.
Perhaps you could inherit base your own implemented OpenFileDialog using the System.IO namespace objects such as DirectoryInfo, for instance, which will allow you to get the browsed folder files with the Getfiles() method, then filter yourself through LINQ to display the files with no extension only with the FileInfo.Extension property.
EDIT #2
Since the OpenFileDialog is sealed, you may use it as a nested type and implement your own methods using this nested type.
I hope this helps you!

If the other software program creates these files in the same location, why not have your code add an extension (something innocuous like ".XXX") to every extension-less file in that folder, and then show the dialog?
Edit: Or, see this MSDN article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646960(VS.85).aspx
From the Filters section:
The CDN_INCLUDEITEM notification
message provides another way to filter
the names that the dialog box
displays. To use this message, provide
an OFNHookProc hook procedure and
specify the OFN_ENABLEINCLUDENOTIFY
flag in the OPENFILENAME structure
when you create the dialog box. Each
time the user opens a folder, the
dialog box sends a CDN_INCLUDEITEM
notification to your hook procedure
for each item in the newly opened
folder. The return value of the hook
procedure indicates whether the dialog
box should display the item in the
folder's item list.
Down at the bottom in the Explorer-Style Hook Procedures section, the article explains how to do this. Basically, you pass an event handler to the OpenFile dialog, and each time the user navigates to a new folder, the dialog iterates through all the files in the folder and calls your event handler for each one. Inside the event handler, you would put your code to determine if the file has an extension or not, and return true or false, accordingly.

I thought using *. would work, but it doesn't, so it seems that's a limitation of the OpenFileDialog control.
You could create your own dialog but the OpenFileDialog is not inheritable so this would end up being a lot of work for just a small feature.
Is the file with no extension created by your own application? If that's the case, you could give it a custom extension for your filtering. If it's not, then I'm afraid I can't think of anything else to help you :(
Good luck!

Action required to do the operation "browse"

If i created a button named Browse ,,If i click Browse button i have to
browse my system folders .Can any one give me the required code to browse
the specific folders

Check out the FolderBrowserDialog if you are wanting to find a folder.
If you are wanting to open a file, you can use the OpenFileDialog.
Both links provide examples of how to use the dialogs.
This MSDN link provides how to get the special system folders. And you can specify the type of special folder you want by using the appropriate enumeration. Check this link for those.
Essentially, you are going to do something like so if you want to pop up a dialog and browse to the System folder and select some files from there:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
OpenFileDialog od = new OpenFileDialog();
od.InitialDirectory = Environgment.SpecialFolder.System;
od.Multiselect = true;
if (od.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
// do stuff
// od.Filenames will hold the string[] of selected files
}
}

Assuming you want to display the results in a list named files something like:
String directory = Environment.GetFolderPath (Environment.SpecialFolder.System);
String[]files = Directory.GetFiles (directory);
foreach (String file in files)
files.Add (file);
You can use a FolderBrowserDialog control and call the code there if you want to browse multiple directories.

What's the best way to let a user pick a subdirectory in C#?

What's the best way to let a user pick a subdirectory in C#?
For example, an app that lets the user organize all his saved html receipts. He most likely is going to want to be able to select a root subdirectory that the program should search for saved webpages (receipts).
Duplicate:
Browse for a directory in C#

The Folder Browser Dialog is the way to go.
If you want to set an initial folder path, you can add this to your form load event:
// Sets "My Documents" as the initial folder path
string myDocsPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
FolderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath = myDocsPath;

Check the FolderBrowserDialog class.
// ...
if (folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
textBox1.Text = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath;
}

FolderBrowserDialog works just fine for this purpose.

FolderBrowserDialog works, but offers very little customization.
If you want a textbox where users can type in the path have a look here
Dupe of:
Browse for a directory in C#

Whatever you do, don't use the FolderBrowserDialog.
Just kidding. Use that.