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Scan the Directory / Files (Calculating the size)

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2.56/5 (26 votes)
17 Apr 2004 122K   1.2K   38   15
Scans through the directory recursively and calculates the total size.

Screenshot

Introduction

It's a simple program which scans a directory recursively through the subfolders and sum up the size of the files. It also displays the size of the individual files, and eventually the total size of the directory.

Explanation

Observe the follows:

C#
using System;
using System.IO;

We need to include System.IO, as we are working on Files and/or Directories.

The program starts as follows:

C#
static void Main(string[] args) 
{
  //Creates an object of the class getFilesInfo 
  //and calls its function displayFileInfo()
  //The argument is passed to that function 
  //which is the path to a directory or a file.
  getFilesInfo obj = new getFilesInfo();
  obj.displayFileInfo(args[0]);

  // displayFileInfo() is the function which does everything and 
  // sets the static variable totsize to the total size of the dir/file
  //you passed as the argument.
  Console.WriteLine("Total Size = {0}", totsize);
}

Now, let's look at the crux of the program:

C#
protected void displayFileInfo(String path)
{
  try
  {
    //Checks if the path is valid or not
    if(!Directory.Exists(path))
    {
      Console.WriteLine("invalid path");
    }
    else
    {
      try
      {
        //Directory.GetFiles() returns an array 
        //of strings which are not just
        //the file/directory name but the whole path to that
        //file folder.
        string[] fileList = Directory.GetFiles(path);
        for(int i=0; i {
          if(File.Exists(fileList[i]))
          {
            //File Info is a Class which extend FileSystemInfo class. 
            FileInfo finfo = new FileInfo(fileList[i]);
            //finfo.Length returns the File size. 
            totsize += finfo.Length;
            Console.WriteLine("FILE: "+fileList[i]+" :Size>"+ finfo.Length); 
          }
        }
      }
      catch( System.NotSupportedException e1)
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Error1"+e1.Message);
      }
      try
      {
        string[] dirList = Directory.GetDirectories(path);
        for(int i=0; i {
          Console.WriteLine("DIRECTORY CHANGED:" + dirList[i]); 
          //Call the function recursively to get 
          //the file sizes in the subfolder. 
          displayFileInfo(dirList[i]);
        }
      }
      catch( System.NotSupportedException e2)
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Error2:"+ e2.Message);
      }
    }
  }
  catch(System.UnauthorizedAccessException e)
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Error:"+ e.Message);
  }
}

You should have observed that we can't find the size of a folder directly. We should sum up the size of the files it constitutes. I think it is so because a Folder is just a pointer which points to the files and other directories. It has no size by itself. And one more thing is that the methods:

C#
Directory.GetFiles(path);
Directory.GetDirectories(path);

return not just the file/directory name but the whole path to that file/folder.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Web Developer
United States United States
My name is Srinivas Varukala, a citizen of India.
I m pursuing my masters in CS in the US of A.
My interests r in:
C
C++
C#
Java n its variants.
My webspace: www.cs.odu.edu/~svarukal

Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionOther ads free tools Pin
devvvy13-Feb-15 14:27
devvvy13-Feb-15 14:27 
GeneralMy vote of 1 Pin
David Crow14-Jan-10 9:42
David Crow14-Jan-10 9:42 
GeneralGreat app Pin
sawo16-Mar-08 22:10
sawo16-Mar-08 22:10 
Generala typo Pin
Arfeeng13-Jan-06 11:59
Arfeeng13-Jan-06 11:59 
GeneralRe: a typo Pin
Srinivas Varukala13-Jan-06 12:43
Srinivas Varukala13-Jan-06 12:43 
yeah you are right! i never observed it. My bad!
THanks for pointing it out.

Srinivas Varukala
virginia, USA.
GeneralRe: a typo Pin
ryelpango11-Aug-09 16:04
ryelpango11-Aug-09 16:04 
Generalgood Pin
Anonymous18-Apr-04 17:27
Anonymous18-Apr-04 17:27 
GeneralYou can improve. Pin
Prakash Nadar18-Apr-04 15:11
Prakash Nadar18-Apr-04 15:11 
GeneralRe: You can improve. Pin
Srinivas Varukala18-Apr-04 15:53
Srinivas Varukala18-Apr-04 15:53 
GeneralRe: You can improve. Pin
Paul Watson12-May-04 4:48
sitebuilderPaul Watson12-May-04 4:48 
GeneralRe: You can improve. Pin
Prakash Nadar12-May-04 6:57
Prakash Nadar12-May-04 6:57 
GeneralRe: You can improve. Pin
Anonymous12-May-04 7:45
Anonymous12-May-04 7:45 
GeneralRe: You can improve. Pin
Prakash Nadar13-May-04 6:20
Prakash Nadar13-May-04 6:20 
GeneralTry using delegates Pin
Mark Focas18-Apr-04 14:31
Mark Focas18-Apr-04 14:31 
GeneralRe: Try using delegates Pin
Srinivas Varukala18-Apr-04 15:54
Srinivas Varukala18-Apr-04 15:54 

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