Can you call Directory.GetFiles() with multiple filters?

Question

I am trying to use the Directory.GetFiles() method to retrieve a list of files of multiple types, such as mp3\'s and jpg\'s. I have t

Answer 1

I can't use .Where method because I'm programming in .NET Framework 2.0 (Linq is only supported in .NET Framework 3.5+).

Code below is not case sensitive (so .CaB or .cab will be listed too).

string[] ext = new string[2] { "*.CAB", "*.MSU" };

foreach (string found in ext)
{
    string[] extracted = Directory.GetFiles("C:\\test", found, System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories);

    foreach (string file in extracted)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(file);
    }
}

Answer 2

/// <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 3

For .NET 4.0 and later,

var files = Directory.EnumerateFiles("C:\\path", "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
            .Where(s => s.EndsWith(".mp3") || s.EndsWith(".jpg"));

For earlier versions of .NET,

var files = Directory.GetFiles("C:\\path", "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
            .Where(s => s.EndsWith(".mp3") || s.EndsWith(".jpg"));

edit: Please read the comments. The improvement that Paul Farry suggests, and the memory/performance issue that Christian.K points out are both very important.

Answer 4

Just found an another way to do it. Still not one operation, but throwing it out to see what other people think about it.

private void getFiles(string path)
{
    foreach (string s in Array.FindAll(Directory.GetFiles(path, "*", SearchOption.AllDirectories), predicate_FileMatch))
    {
        Debug.Print(s);
    }
}

private bool predicate_FileMatch(string fileName)
{
    if (fileName.EndsWith(".mp3"))
        return true;
    if (fileName.EndsWith(".jpg"))
        return true;
    return false;
}

Answer 5

Nope. Try the following:

List<string> _searchPatternList = new List<string>();
    ...
    List<string> fileList = new List<string>();
    foreach ( string ext in _searchPatternList )
    {
        foreach ( string subFile in Directory.GetFiles( folderName, ext  )
        {
            fileList.Add( subFile );
        }
    }

    // Sort alpabetically
    fileList.Sort();

    // Add files to the file browser control    
    foreach ( string fileName in fileList )
    {
        ...;
    }

Taken from: http://blogs.msdn.com/markda/archive/2006/04/20/580075.aspx

Answer 6

I know it's old question but LINQ: (.NET40+)

var files = Directory.GetFiles("path_to_files").Where(file => Regex.IsMatch(file, @"^.+\.(wav|mp3|txt)$"));