List all files and directories in a directory + subdirectories

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 name of

Answer 1

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 2

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 3

using System.IO;
using System.Text;
string[] filePaths = Directory.GetFiles(@"path", "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

Answer 4

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);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

Some improved version with max lvl to go down in directory and option to exclude folders:

using System;
using System.IO;

class MainClass {
  public static void Main (string[] args) {

    var dir = @"C:\directory\to\print";
    PrintDirectoryTree(dir, 2, new string[] {"folder3"});
  }


  public static void PrintDirectoryTree(string directory, int lvl, string[] excludedFolders = null, string lvlSeperator = "")
  {
    excludedFolders = excludedFolders ?? new string[0];

    foreach (string f in Directory.GetFiles(directory))
    {
        Console.WriteLine(lvlSeperator+Path.GetFileName(f));
    } 

    foreach (string d in Directory.GetDirectories(directory))
    {
        Console.WriteLine(lvlSeperator + "-" + Path.GetFileName(d));

        if(lvl > 0 && Array.IndexOf(excludedFolders, Path.GetFileName(d)) < 0)
        {
          PrintDirectoryTree(d, lvl-1, excludedFolders, lvlSeperator+"  ");
        }
    }
  }
}

input directory:

-folder1
  file1.txt
  -folder2
    file2.txt
    -folder5
      file6.txt
  -folder3
    file3.txt
  -folder4
    file4.txt
    file5.txt

output of the function (content of folder5 is excluded due to lvl limit and content of folder3 is excluded because it is in excludedFolders array):

-folder1
  file1.txt
  -folder2
    file2.txt
    -folder5
  -folder3
  -folder4
    file4.txt
    file5.txt

Answer 6

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.