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<String> files = new List<String>();

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.

Solution 1

private List<String> DirSearch(string sDir)
{
    List<String> files = new List<String>();
    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.

Solution 2

You can use Directory.GetFiles to replace your method.

 Directory.GetFiles(dirPath, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)

Solution 3

Simply use this:

public static List<String> GetAllFiles(String directory)
{
    return Directory.GetFiles(directory, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).ToList();
}

And if you want every file, even extensionless ones:

public static List<String> GetAllFiles(String directory)
{
    return Directory.GetFiles(directory, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories).ToList();
}

Solution 4

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

Solution 5

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<string> 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.

View more solutions