Multiple file-extensions searchPattern for System IO Directory GetFiles

Question

What is the syntax for setting multiple file-extensions as searchPattern on Directory GetFiles    For example filtering out files with  aspx and  ascx extensions      TODO  Set the string  searchPattern  to only get files with    the extension   aspx  and   ascx   var filteredFiles   Directory GetFiles path  searchPattern     Update  LINQ is not an option  it has to be a searchPattern passed into GetFiles  as specified in the question

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A more efficient way of getting files with the extensions   aspx  and   ascx  that avoids querying the file system several times and avoids returning a lot of undesired files  is to pre-filter the files by using an approximate search pattern and to refine the result afterwards   var filteredFiles   Directory GetFiles path     as x        Select f   gt  f ToLowerInvariant         Where f   gt  f EndsWith  px      f EndsWith  cx         ToList

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public static bool CheckFiles string pathA  string pathB                string   extantionFormat   new string       war     pkg             return CheckFiles pathA  pathB  extantionFormat             public static bool CheckFiles string pathA  string pathB  string   extantionFormat                System IO DirectoryInfo dir1   new System IO DirectoryInfo pathA           System IO DirectoryInfo dir2   new System IO DirectoryInfo pathB              Take a snapshot of the file system  list1 2 will contain only WAR or PKG             files            fileInfosA will contain all of files under path directories          FileInfo   fileInfosA   dir1 GetFiles                                       System IO SearchOption AllDirectories              list will contain all of files that have   extantion                Run on all extantion in extantion array and compare them by lower case to             the file item extantion             List lt System IO FileInfo gt  list1    from extItem in extantionFormat                                           from fileItem in fileInfosA                                           where extItem ToLower   Equals                                             fileItem Extension ToLower                                              select fileItem  ToList               Take a snapshot of the file system  list1 2 will contain only WAR or              PKG files            fileInfosA will contain all of files under path directories          FileInfo   fileInfosB   dir2 GetFiles                                                System IO SearchOption AllDirectories              list will contain all of files that have   extantion                Run on all extantion in extantion array and compare them by lower case to             the file item extantion             List lt System IO FileInfo gt  list2    from extItem in extantionFormat                                           from fileItem in fileInfosB                                           where extItem ToLower   Equals                                                        fileItem Extension ToLower                                              select fileItem  ToList            FileCompare myFileCompare   new FileCompare               This query determines whether the two folders contain             identical file lists  based on the custom file comparer             that is defined in the FileCompare class           return list1 SequenceEqual list2  myFileCompare

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I believe there is no  out of the box  solution  that s a limitation of the Directory GetFiles method     It s fairly easy to write your own method though  here is an example   The code could be         lt summary gt      Returns file names from given folder that comply to given filters      lt  summary gt       lt param name  SourceFolder  gt Folder with files to retrieve lt  param gt       lt param name  Filter  gt Multiple file filters separated by   character lt  param gt       lt param name  searchOption  gt File IO SearchOption       could be AllDirectories or TopDirectoryOnly lt  param gt       lt returns gt Array of FileInfo objects that presents collection of file names that      meet given filter lt  returns gt  public string   getFiles string SourceFolder  string Filter    System IO SearchOption searchOption        ArrayList will hold all file names ArrayList alFiles   new ArrayList         Create an array of filter string  string   MultipleFilters   Filter Split            for each filter find mathing file names  foreach  string FileFilter in MultipleFilters          add found file names to array list   alFiles AddRange Directory GetFiles SourceFolder  FileFilter  searchOption            returns string array of relevant file names  return  string   alFiles ToArray typeof string

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I fear you will have to do somthing like this  I mutated the regex from here   var searchPattern   new Regex            lt     aspx ascx          RegexOptions IgnoreCase   var files   Directory EnumerateFiles path       Where f   gt  searchPattern IsMatch f        ToList

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I did a simple way for seach as many extensions as you need  and with no ToLower    RegEx  foreach     List lt String gt  myExtensions   new List lt String gt        aspx     ascx     cs        You can add as many extensions as you want  DirectoryInfo myFolder   new DirectoryInfo   C  FolderFoo    SearchOption option   SearchOption TopDirectoryOnly     Use SearchOption AllDirectories for seach in all subfolders  List lt FileInfo gt  myFiles   myFolder EnumerateFiles        option       Where file   gt  myExtensions      Any e   gt  String Compare file Extension  e  CultureInfo CurrentCulture  CompareOptions IgnoreCase     0        ToList      Working on  Net Standard 2 0

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I would try to specify something like  var searchPattern    as x     it should work

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look like this demo   void Main         foreach var f in GetFilesToProcess  c      new      xml     txt             Debug WriteLine f     private static IEnumerable lt string gt  GetFilesToProcess string path  IEnumerable lt string gt  extensions       return Directory GetFiles path                 Where f   gt  extensions Contains Path GetExtension f  ToLower

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Instead of the EndsWith function  I would choose to use the Path GetExtension   method instead  Here is the full example   var filteredFiles   Directory EnumerateFiles  path    Where      file   gt  Path GetExtension file  Equals    aspx   StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase                  Path GetExtension file  Equals    ascx   StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase        or   var filteredFiles   Directory EnumerateFiles path   Where      file   gt  string Equals  Path GetExtension file     aspx   StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase                  string Equals  Path GetExtension file     ascx   StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase         Use StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase if you care about performance  MSDN string comparisons

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var filteredFiles   Directory      EnumerateFiles path             NET4 better than  GetFiles       Where             ignorecase faster than tolower            file   gt  file ToLower   EndsWith  aspx              file EndsWith  ascx   StringComparison OrdinalIgnoreCase        ToList       Don t forget the new  NET4 Directory EnumerateFiles for a performance boost  What is the difference between Directory EnumerateFiles vs Directory GetFiles    IgnoreCase  should be faster than  ToLower    Or  it may be faster to split and merge your globs  at least it looks cleaner       ext1   ext2  Split           SelectMany g   gt  Directory EnumerateFiles path  g        ToList

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c  version of  qfactor77 s answer  This is the best way without LINQ    string   wildcards      mp4      jpg    ReadOnlyCollection lt string gt  filePathCollection   FileSystem GetFiles dirPath  Microsoft VisualBasic FileIO SearchOption SearchAllSubDirectories  wildcards   string   filePath new string filePathCollection Count   filePathCollection CopyTo filePath 0     now return filePath string array  In the beginning you need  using Microsoft VisualBasic FileIO  using System Collections ObjectModel    also you need to add reference to Microsoft VisualBasic

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GetFiles can only match a single pattern  but you can use Linq to invoke GetFiles with multiple patterns   FileInfo   fi   new string      txt     doc        SelectMany i   gt  di GetFiles i  SearchOption AllDirectories        ToArray      See comments section here  http   www codeproject com KB aspnet NET DirectoryInfo aspx

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The easy-to-remember  lazy and perhaps imperfect solution   Directory GetFiles dir     dll   Union Directory GetFiles dir     exe

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Daniel B  thanks for the suggestion to write my own version of this function  It has the same behavior as Directory GetFiles  but supports regex filtering   string   FindFiles FolderBrowserDialog dialog  string pattern                Regex regex   new Regex pattern            List lt string gt  files   new List lt string gt             var files Directory GetFiles dialog SelectedPath           for int i   0  i  lt  files Count    i                          bool found   regex IsMatch files i                if found                                files Add files i                                     return files ToArray            I found it useful  so I thought I d share

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You can do it like this  new DirectoryInfo path  GetFiles   Where Current   gt  Regex IsMatch Current Extension       aspx ascx    RegexOptions IgnoreCase

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var filteredFiles   Directory      GetFiles path              Where file   gt  file ToLower   EndsWith  aspx      file ToLower   EndsWith  ascx         ToList      Edit 2014-07-23  You can do this in  NET 4 5 for a faster enumeration   var filteredFiles   Directory      EnumerateFiles path     lt ---  NET 4 5      Where file   gt  file ToLower   EndsWith  aspx      file ToLower   EndsWith  ascx         ToList      Directory EnumerateFiles in MSDN

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Just would like to say that if you use FileIO FileSystem GetFiles instead of Directory GetFiles  it will allow an array of wildcards   For example   Dim wildcards As String         html      zip   Dim ListFiles As List Of String    FileIO FileSystem GetFiles directoryyouneed  FileIO SearchOption SearchTopLevelOnly  wildcards  ToList

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lt summary gt          Returns the names of files in a specified directories that match the specified patterns using LINQ          lt  summary gt           lt param name  srcDirs  gt The directories to seach lt  param gt           lt param name  searchPatterns  gt the list of search patterns lt  param gt           lt param name  searchOption  gt  lt  param gt           lt returns gt The list of files that match the specified pattern lt  returns gt      public static string   GetFilesUsingLINQ string   srcDirs           string   searchPatterns           SearchOption searchOption   SearchOption AllDirectories                var r   from dir in srcDirs                 from searchPattern in searchPatterns                 from f in Directory GetFiles dir  searchPattern  searchOption                  select f           return r ToArray

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I would use the following   var ext   new string       ASPX     ASCX     FileInfo   collection    from fi in new DirectoryInfo path  GetFiles                            where ext Contains fi Extension ToUpper                             select fi                            ToArray      EDIT  corrected due mismatch between Directory and DirectoryInfo

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I like this method  because it is readable and avoids multiple iterations of the directory   var allowedExtensions   new       doc     docx     pdf     ppt     pptx     xls     xslx     var files   Directory      GetFiles folder       Where file   gt  allowedExtensions Any file ToLower   EndsWith        ToList

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var filtered   Directory GetFiles path       Where file   gt  file EndsWith  aspx   StringComparison InvariantCultureIgnoreCase     file EndsWith  ascx   StringComparison InvariantCultureIgnoreCase        ToList

[c#] Multiple file-extensions searchPattern for System.IO.Directory.GetFiles

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