How to exclude folders when using Directory.GetDirectories

Question

I want to return a list of all the subdirectories in the 'SomeFolder' directory excluding the 'Admin' and 'Templates' directories.

I have the following folder structure (simplified):

    C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyWebsite\SomeFolder\RandomString
    C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyWebsite\SomeFolder\RandomString
    C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyWebsite\SomeFolder\RandomString
    C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyWebsite\SomeFolder\Admin 
    C:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyWebsite\SomeFolder\Templates 

'SomeFolder' can contain a varying number a 'RandomString' folders (anywhere from ~10 to ~100).

Here is what I have tried:

    var dirs = Directory.GetDirectories(Server.MapPath(".."))
    .Where(s => !s.EndsWith("Admin") || !s.EndsWith("Templates"));
    foreach (string dir in dirs)
    {
        lit.Text += Environment.NewLine + dir;
    }

This returns the full list of folders (shown above) without 'Admin' and 'Templates' filtered out.

Interestingly, if I change the LINQ .Where clause to include, instead of exclude, 'Admin' and 'Templates' it works, meaning it returns just the paths for 'Admin' and 'Templates'.

.Where(s => s.EndsWith("Admin") || s.EndsWith("Templates"));

If LINQ is not the solution, is there any way to use the GetDirectories SearchPattern to filter out directories?

Answer 1

the opposite of (A || B) is (!A && !B), so in your code it should be &&, not ||...

Answer 2

You can do something like:

//list your excluded dirs
private List<string> _excludedDirectories= new List<string>() { "Admin", "Templates" };

//method to check
static bool isExcluded(List<string> exludedDirList, string target)
{
    return exludedDirList.Any(d => new DirectoryInfo(target).Name.Equals(d));
}

//then use this
var filteredDirs = Directory.GetDirectories(path).Where(d => !isExcluded(_excludedDirectories, d));