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

Answer 1

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the names of files in a specified directories that match the specified patterns using LINQ
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="srcDirs">The directories to seach</param>
    /// <param name="searchPatterns">the list of search patterns</param>
    /// <param name="searchOption"></param>
    /// <returns>The list of files that match the specified pattern</returns>
    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();
    }

Answer 2

var filteredFiles = Directory
    .EnumerateFiles(path, "*.*") // .NET4 better than `GetFiles`
    .Where(
        // ignorecase faster than tolower...
        file => 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 => Directory.EnumerateFiles(path, g))
    .ToList();

Answer 3

The easy-to-remember, lazy and perhaps imperfect solution:

Directory.GetFiles(dir, "*.dll").Union(Directory.GetFiles(dir, "*.exe"))

Answer 4

    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<System.IO.FileInfo> 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<System.IO.FileInfo> 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);
    }

Answer 5

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 => f.ToLowerInvariant())
    .Where(f => f.EndsWith("px") || f.EndsWith("cx"))
    .ToList();

Answer 6

c# version of @qfactor77's answer. This is the best way without LINQ .

string[] wildcards= {"*.mp4", "*.jpg"};
ReadOnlyCollection<string> 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