List all files and directories in a directory + su

Question

I want to list every file and directory contained in a directory and subdirectories of that directory. If I chose C:\ as the directory, the program would get every the name of every file and folder on the hard drive that it had access to.

A list might look like

fd\1.txt
fd\2.txt
fd\a\
fd\b\
fd\a\1.txt
fd\a\2.txt
fd\a\a\
fd\a\b\
fd\b\1.txt
fd\b\2.txt
fd\b\a
fd\b\b
fd\a\a\1.txt
fd\a\a\a\
fd\a\b\1.txt
fd\a\b\a
fd\b\a\1.txt
fd\b\a\a\
fd\b\b\1.txt
fd\b\b\a

Answer 1

You could use FindFirstFile which returns a handle and then recursively cal a function which calls FindNextFile.This is a good aproach as the structure referenced would be filled with various data such as alternativeName,lastTmeCreated,modified,attributes etc

But as you use .net framework, you would have to enter the unmanaged area.

Answer 2

the logical and ordered way:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;

namespace DirLister
{
class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        //with reflection I get the directory from where this program is running, thus listing all files from there and all subdirectories
        string[] st = FindFileDir(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location));
        using ( StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("listing.txt", false ) )
        {
            foreach(string s in st)
            {
                //I write what I found in a text file
                sw.WriteLine(s);
            }
        }
    }

    private static string[] FindFileDir(string beginpath)
    {
        List<string> findlist = new List<string>();

        /* I begin a recursion, following the order:
         * - Insert all the files in the current directory with the recursion
         * - Insert all subdirectories in the list and rebegin the recursion from there until the end
         */
        RecurseFind( beginpath, findlist );

        return findlist.ToArray();
    }

    private static void RecurseFind( string path, List<string> list )
    {
        string[] fl = Directory.GetFiles(path);
        string[] dl = Directory.GetDirectories(path);
        if ( fl.Length>0 || dl.Length>0 )
        {
            //I begin with the files, and store all of them in the list
            foreach(string s in fl)
                list.Add(s);
            //I then add the directory and recurse that directory, the process will repeat until there are no more files and directories to recurse
            foreach(string s in dl)
            {
                list.Add(s);
                RecurseFind(s, list);
            }
        }
    }
}
}

Answer 3

I am afraid, the GetFiles method returns list of files but not the directories. The list in the question prompts me that the result should include the folders as well. If you want more customized list, you may try calling GetFiles and GetDirectories recursively. Try this:

List<string> AllFiles = new List<string>();
void ParsePath(string path)
{
    string[] SubDirs = Directory.GetDirectories(path);
    AllFiles.AddRange(SubDirs);
    AllFiles.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(path));
    foreach (string subdir in SubDirs)
        ParsePath(subdir);
}

Tip: You can use FileInfo and DirectoryInfo classes if you need to check any specific attribute.

Answer 4

A littlebit simple and slowly but working!! if you do not give a filepath basicly use the "fixPath" this is just example.... you can search the correct fileType what you want, i did a mistake when i chosen the list name because the "temporaryFileList is the searched file list so carry on that.... and the "errorList" is speaks for itself

 static public void Search(string path, string fileType, List<string> temporaryFileList, List<string> errorList)
    {

        List<string> temporaryDirectories = new List<string>();

        //string fix = @"C:\Users\" + Environment.UserName + @"\";
        string fix = @"C:\";
        string folders = "";
        //Alap útvonal megadása 
        if (path.Length != 0)
        { folders = path; }
        else { path = fix; }

        int j = 0;
        int equals = 0;
        bool end = true;

        do
        {

            equals = j;
            int k = 0;

            try
            {

                int foldersNumber = 
                Directory.GetDirectories(folders).Count();
                int fileNumber = Directory.GetFiles(folders).Count();

                if ((foldersNumber != 0 || fileNumber != 0) && equals == j)
                {

                    for (int i = k; k < 
                    Directory.GetDirectories(folders).Length;)
                    {

             temporaryDirectories.Add(Directory.GetDirectories(folders)[k]);
                        k++;
                    }

                    if (temporaryDirectories.Count == j)
                    {
                        end = false;
                        break;
                    }
                    foreach (string files in Directory.GetFiles(folders))
                    {
                        if (files != string.Empty)
                        {
                            if (fileType.Length == 0)
                            {
                                temporaryDirectories.Add(files);
                            }
                            else
                            {

                                if (files.Contains(fileType))
                                {
                                    temporaryDirectories.Add(files);

                                }
                            }
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            break;
                        }
                    }

                }

                equals++;

                for (int i = j; i < temporaryDirectories.Count;)
                {
                    folders = temporaryDirectories[i];
                    j++;
                    break;
                }

            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                errorList.Add(folders);

                for (int i = j; i < temporaryDirectories.Count;)
                {
                    folders = temporaryDirectories[i];
                    j++;
                    break;
                }
            }
        } while (end);
    }

Answer 5

Directory.GetFileSystemEntries exists in .NET 4.0+ and returns both files and directories. Call it like so:

string[] entries = Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(path, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

Note that it won't cope with attempts to list the contents of subdirectories that you don't have access to (UnauthorizedAccessException), but it may be sufficient for your needs.

Answer 6

I use the following code with a form that has 2 buttons, one for exit and the other to start. A folder browser dialog and a save file dialog. Code is listed below and works on my system Windows10 (64):

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Directory_List
{

    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public string MyPath = "";
        public string MyFileName = "";
        public string str = "";

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }    
        private void cmdQuit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Application.Exit();
        }    
        private void cmdGetDirectory_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog();
            MyPath = folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath;    
            saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog();
            MyFileName = saveFileDialog1.FileName;    
            str = "Folder = " + MyPath + "\r\n\r\n\r\n";    
            DirectorySearch(MyPath);    
            var result = MessageBox.Show("Directory saved to Disk!", "", MessageBoxButtons.OK);
                Application.Exit();    
        }    
        public void DirectorySearch(string dir)
        {
                try
            {
                foreach (string f in Directory.GetFiles(dir))
                {
                    str = str + dir + "\\" + (Path.GetFileName(f)) + "\r\n";
                }    
                foreach (string d in Directory.GetDirectories(dir, "*"))
                {

                    DirectorySearch(d);
                }
                        System.IO.File.WriteAllText(MyFileName, str);

            }
            catch (System.Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}