Searching for file in directories recursively

Question

I have the following code to recursively search for files through a directory  which returns a list of all xml files to me   All works well  except that xml files in the root directory are not included in the list   I understand why  since the first thing it does is get the directories in the root  then get files   thus missing the GetFiles   call on the root   I tried including the GetFiles   call prior to the foreach  but the results are not as I expect     public static ArrayList DirSearch string sDir        try               foreach  string d in Directory GetDirectories sDir                         foreach  string f in Directory GetFiles d     xml                                  string extension   Path GetExtension f                   if  extension    null  amp  amp   extension Equals   xml                                       fileList Add f                                               DirSearch d                       catch  Exception ex                Console WriteLine ex Message             return fileList      My directory structure is something like   RootDirectory         test1 0 xml             test1 1 xml             test1 2 xml   2ndLevDir             test2 0 xml             test2 1 xml   3rdLevDir                test3 0 xml                test3 1 xml   Code returns   test2 0 xml test2 1 xml test3 0 xml test3 1 xml   I would like to return every file including   test1 0 xml test1 1 xml test1 2 xml   Not very well verse with recursion   Any pointers would be greatly appreciated

User · Answer

Using EnumerateFiles to get files in nested directories   Use AllDirectories to recurse throught directories   using System  using System IO   class Program       static void Main                Call EnumerateFiles in a foreach-loop      foreach  string file in Directory EnumerateFiles   c  files              xml           SearchOption AllDirectories                    Display file path          Console WriteLine file

User · Answer

You will want to move the loop for the files outside of the loop for the folders  In addition you will need to pass the data structure holding the collection of files to each call of the method  That way all files go into a single list   public static List lt string gt  DirSearch string sDir  List lt string gt  files      foreach  string f in Directory GetFiles sDir     xml            string extension   Path GetExtension f       if  extension    null  amp  amp   extension Equals   xml                 files Add f               foreach  string d in Directory GetDirectories sDir           DirSearch d  files         return files      Then call it like this   List lt string gt  files   DirSearch  c  foo   new List lt string gt        Update   Well unbeknownst to me  until I read the other answer anyway  there is already a builtin mechanism for doing this  I will leave my answer in case you are interested in seeing how your code needs to be modified to make it work

User · Answer

Try the following method   public static IEnumerable lt string gt  GetXMLFiles string directory        List lt string gt  files   new List lt string gt          try               files AddRange Directory GetFiles directory     xml   SearchOption AllDirectories              catch  Exception ex                Console WriteLine ex Message              return files

User · Answer

you can do something like this    foreach  var file in Directory GetFiles MyFolder     xml   SearchOption AllDirectories                            do something with this file

User · Answer

You are creating three lists  instead of using one  you don t use the return value of DirSearch d    You can use a list as a parameter to save the state   static void Main string   args      var list   new List lt string gt       DirSearch list           foreach  var file in list          Console WriteLine file          public static void DirSearch List lt string gt  files  string startDirectory      try         foreach  string file in Directory GetFiles startDirectory                      string extension   Path GetExtension file          if  extension    null                  files Add file                      foreach  string directory in Directory GetDirectories startDirectory               DirSearch files  directory               catch  System Exception e          Console WriteLine e Message

User · Answer

You should have the loop over the files either before or after the loop over the directories  but not nested inside it as you have done   foreach  string f in Directory GetFiles d     xml          string extension   Path GetExtension f       if  extension    null  amp  amp   extension Equals   xml                   fileList Add f             foreach  string d in Directory GetDirectories sDir         DirSearch d

User · Answer

You could use this overload of Directory GetFiles which searches subdirectories for you  for example   string   files   Directory GetFiles sDir     xml   SearchOption AllDirectories     Only one extension can be searched for like that  but you could use something like   var extensions   new List lt string gt      txt     xml     string   files   Directory GetFiles sDir         SearchOption AllDirectories                       Where f   gt  extensions IndexOf Path GetExtension f    gt   0  ToArray      to select files with the required extensions  N B  that is case-sensitive for the extension      In some cases it can be desirable to enumerate over the files with the Directory EnumerateFiles Method   foreach string f in Directory EnumerateFiles sDir     xml   SearchOption AllDirectories            do something     Consult the documentation for exceptions which can be thrown  such as UnauthorizedAccessException if the code is running under an account which does not have appropriate access permissions

User · Answer

For file and directory search purpose I would want to offer use specialized multithreading  NET library that possess a wide search opportunities and works very fast   All information about library you can find on GitHub   https   github com VladPVS FastSearchLibrary  If you want to download it you can do it here  https   github com VladPVS FastSearchLibrary releases  If you have any questions please ask them   It is one demonstrative example how you can use it   class Searcher       private static object locker   new object          private FileSearcher searcher       List lt FileInfo gt  files       public Searcher                 files   new List lt FileInfo gt        create list that will contain search result            public void Startsearch                 CancellationTokenSource tokenSource   new CancellationTokenSource               create tokenSource to get stop search process possibility          searcher   new FileSearcher   C      f    gt                        return Regex IsMatch f Name       Dd ragon   jpg                tokenSource       give tokenSource in constructor           searcher FilesFound     sender  arg    gt     subscribe on FilesFound event                       lock  locker     using a lock is obligatorily                               arg Files ForEach  f    gt                                        files Add f      add the next received file to the search results list                     Console WriteLine   File location   f FullName    nCreation Time   f CreationTime                                          if  files Count  gt   10     one can choose any stopping condition                     searcher StopSearch                                      searcher SearchCompleted     sender  arg    gt     subscribe on SearchCompleted event                       if  arg IsCanceled     check whether StopSearch   called                 Console WriteLine  Search stopped                 else                 Console WriteLine  Search completed                  Console WriteLine   Quantity of files   files Count        show amount of finding files                     searcher StartSearchAsync               start search process as an asynchronous operation that doesn t block the called thread

User · Answer

I tried some of the other solutions listed here  but during unit testing the code would throw exceptions I wanted to ignore  I ended up creating the following recursive search method that will ignore certain exceptions like PathTooLongException and UnauthorizedAccessException       private IEnumerable lt string gt  RecursiveFileSearch string path  string pattern  ICollection lt string gt  filePathCollector   null                try                       filePathCollector   filePathCollector    new LinkedList lt string gt                  var matchingFilePaths   Directory GetFiles path  pattern                foreach var matchingFile in matchingFilePaths                                filePathCollector Add matchingFile                              var subDirectories   Directory EnumerateDirectories path                foreach  var subDirectory in subDirectories                                RecursiveFileSearch subDirectory  pattern  filePathCollector                              return filePathCollector                    catch  Exception error                        bool isIgnorableError   error is PathTooLongException                    error is UnauthorizedAccessException               if  isIgnorableError                                return Enumerable Empty lt string gt                                throw error

User · Answer

This returns all xml-files recursively    var allFiles   Directory GetFiles path     xml   SearchOption AllDirectories      http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms143316 28v vs 100 29 aspx http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms143448 aspx Y252

[c#] Searching for file in directories recursively

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