Method to get all files within folder and subfolders that will return a list

Question

I have a method that will iterate through a folder and all of its subfolders and get a list of the file paths  However  I could only figure out how to create it and add the files to a public List  but not how to return the list  Here s the method   public List lt String gt  files   new List lt String gt      private void DirSearch string sDir                try                       foreach  string f in Directory GetFiles sDir                                 files Add f                             foreach  string d in Directory GetDirectories sDir                                 DirSearch d                                   catch  System Exception excpt                        MessageBox Show excpt Message                     So  i just call DirSearch   at some point in my code and it  fills  the list with the paths  but I want to be able to use it multiple times to create different lists with different directories  etc

User · Answer

you can use something like this    string    filePaths   Directory GetFiles path         SearchOption AllDirectories     instead of using     you can type the name of the file or just the type like    txt   also SearchOption AllDirectories is to search in all subfolders you can change that if you only want one level  more about how to use it on here

User · Answer

Try this  class Program               static void Main string   args                     getfiles get   new getfiles            List lt string gt  files    get GetAllFiles   D  Rishi             foreach string f in files                        Console WriteLine f                       Console Read               class getfiles       public List lt string gt  GetAllFiles string sDirt                List lt string gt  files   new List lt string gt              try                       foreach  string file in Directory GetFiles sDirt                                 files Add file                             foreach  string fl in Directory GetDirectories sDirt                                 files AddRange GetAllFiles fl                                    catch  Exception ex                         Console WriteLine ex Message                        return files

User · Answer

Simply use this   public static List lt String gt  GetAllFiles String directory        return Directory GetFiles directory         SearchOption AllDirectories  ToList        And if you want every file  even extensionless ones   public static List lt String gt  GetAllFiles String directory        return Directory GetFiles directory       SearchOption AllDirectories  ToList

User · Answer

private List lt String gt  DirSearch string sDir        List lt String gt  files   new List lt String gt         try               foreach  string f in Directory GetFiles sDir                         files Add f                     foreach  string d in Directory GetDirectories sDir                         files AddRange DirSearch d                        catch  System Exception excpt                MessageBox Show excpt Message              return files      and if you don t want to load the entire list in memory and avoid blocking you may take a look at the following answer

User · Answer

This is for anyone that is trying to get a list of all files in a folder and its sub-folders and save it in a text document   Below is the full code including the    using    statements     namespace        class        methods    etc  I tried commenting as much as possible throughout the code so you could understand what each part is doing   This will create a text document that contains a list of all files in all folders and sub-folders of any given root folder  After all  what good is a list  like in Console WriteLine  if you can   t do something with it   Here I have created a folder on the C drive called    Folder1    and created a folder inside that one called    Folder2     Next I filled folder2 with a bunch of files  folders and files and folders within those folders   This example code will get all the files and create a list in a text document and place that text document in Folder1   Caution  you shouldn   t save the text document to Folder2  the folder you are reading from   that would be just bad practice  Always save it to another folder  I hope this helps someone down the line     using System  using System IO   namespace ConsoleApplication4       class Program               public static void Main string   args                           Create a header for your text file             string   HeaderA             List of Files                        System IO File WriteAllLines   c  Folder1 ListOfFiles txt   HeaderA                   Get all files from a folder and all its sub-folders  Here we are getting all files in the folder                named  Folder2  that is in  Folder1  on the C  drive  Notice the use of the  forward and back slash               string   arrayA   Directory GetFiles   c  Folder1 Folder2          SearchOption AllDirectories                                   Now that we have a list of files  write them to a text file                  WriteAllLines   c  Folder1 ListOfFiles txt   arrayA                                 Now  append the header and list to the text file              using  System IO StreamWriter file                   new System IO StreamWriter   c  Folder1 ListOfFiles txt                                     First - call the header                  foreach  string line in HeaderA                                        file WriteLine line                                      file WriteLine       This line just puts a blank space between the header and list of files                        Now  call teh list of files                  foreach  string name in arrayA                                        file WriteLine name                                                             These are just the  throw new exception  calls that are needed when converting the array s to strings               This one is for the Header          private static void WriteAllLines string v  string file                          throw new NotImplementedException                          And this one is for the list of files           private static void WriteAllLines string v  string   arrayA                          throw new NotImplementedException

User · Answer

I am not sure of why you re adding the strings to files  which is declared as a field rather than a temporary variable  You could change the signature of DirSearch to   private List lt string gt  DirSearch string sDir    And  after the catch block  add   return files    Alternatively  you could create a temporary variable inside of your method and return it  which seems to me the approach you might desire  Otherwise  each time you call that method  the newly found strings will be added to the same list as before and you ll have duplicates

User · Answer

You can use Directory GetFiles to replace your method    Directory GetFiles dirPath       SearchOption AllDirectories

User · Answer

String   allfiles   System IO Directory GetFiles  path to dir          System IO SearchOption AllDirectories

[c#] Method to get all files within folder and subfolders that will return a list

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