How to delete all files in a folder but keep the ones that have been added to a FileInfo list

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

I have a fileinfo list of files that I want to keep and I want to delete the files that are not on that list from a folder. How can I do this? Like looping through each file in the directory and if it is not one of the files specified in the list then it should be deleted otherwise keep it. Thank you

Posted 24-Dec-13 6:07am

Henry Hunt

Add a Solution

Comments

Richard MacCutchan 24-Dec-13 12:17pm

That sounds like the obvious way to do it.

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2013-12-24T06:23:00

Pretty simple:
This just creates the list of files to keep:

C#

List<FileInfo> keepers = Directory.GetFiles(@"D:\Temp", "*.jpg").Select(f => new FileInfo(f)).ToList();

Then just:

C#

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(@"D:\Temp");
var deleteList = files.Except(keepers.Select(fi => fi.FullName));
foreach (string s in deleteList)
    {
    File.Delete(s);
    }