How do you get a list of the names of all files present in a directory in Node.js?

Question

I\'m trying to get a list of the names of all the files present in a directory using Node.js. I want output that is an array of filenames. How can I do this?

Answer 1

This is a TypeScript, optionally recursive, optionally error logging and asynchronous solution. You can specify a regular expression for the file names you want to find.

I used fs-extra, because its an easy super set improvement on fs.

import * as FsExtra from 'fs-extra'

/**
 * Finds files in the folder that match filePattern, optionally passing back errors .
 * If folderDepth isn't specified, only the first level is searched. Otherwise anything up
 * to Infinity is supported.
 *
 * @static
 * @param {string} folder The folder to start in.
 * @param {string} [filePattern='.*'] A regular expression of the files you want to find.
 * @param {(Error[] | undefined)} [errors=undefined]
 * @param {number} [folderDepth=0]
 * @returns {Promise}
 * @memberof FileHelper
 */
public static async findFiles(
    folder: string,
    filePattern: string = '.*',
    errors: Error[] | undefined = undefined,
    folderDepth: number = 0
): Promise {
    const results: string[] = []

    // Get all files from the folder
    let items = await FsExtra.readdir(folder).catch(error => {
        if (errors) {
            errors.push(error) // Save errors if we wish (e.g. folder perms issues)
        }

        return results
    })

    // Go through to the required depth and no further
    folderDepth = folderDepth - 1

    // Loop through the results, possibly recurse
    for (const item of items) {
        try {
            const fullPath = Path.join(folder, item)

            if (
                FsExtra.statSync(fullPath).isDirectory() &&
                folderDepth > -1)
            ) {
                // Its a folder, recursively get the child folders' files
                results.push(
                    ...(await FileHelper.findFiles(fullPath, filePattern, errors, folderDepth))
                )
            } else {
                // Filter by the file name pattern, if there is one
                if (filePattern === '.*' || item.search(new RegExp(filePattern, 'i')) > -1) {
                    results.push(fullPath)
                }
            }
        } catch (error) {
            if (errors) {
                errors.push(error) // Save errors if we wish
            }
        }
    }

    return results
}