Searching for files

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

Hi there everyone,

I am trying to search for files in a directory. I want to give the method a directory to search in and the name of the files I want and it must look in the directory and get me all the files with that name. I am currently using:

SearchedFiles = Directory.GetFiles(str_Directory, str_Name, SearchOption.AllDirectories);

where Searched files is an array of strings and the Directory.GetFiles method returns an array with all the file names found.

The problem is that if there are directories that are read protected, the method aborts and throws an exception "UnauthorizedAccessException".

Is there a way to search for files and just ignore all the directories that can't be read, instead of the method aborting and throwing the exception. It could also help if someone knows of an better search Method.

Thanks
Grimes

Posted 20-Sep-10 3:59am

Grimes

Updated 20-Sep-10 4:01am

v2

Add a Solution

Comments

demouser743 20-Sep-10 10:23am

For what type of files you are searching for.

4 solutions

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)

N_tro_P · Answer 1 · 2010-09-20T04:49:00

You can use a partially recursive method. (partially because in an ideal case the recursive part is handled by the framework using "AllDirectories")

Rather than getting all the files on one call build them up.

so the method might be something like

 void RecursiveFileFinder(string path, List<string> collection)
{
   DirectoryInfo dInfo = null;
   try
   {
        dInfo = new DirectoryInfo(path);
   }
   catch(UnauthorizedAccessException)
   {
       //This is the directory that is causing the failure
       //No need to process this directory
       return collection;
   }  
try //Process all sub dirs if possible
{
  string[] foundFiles = dInfo.GetFiles(str_Name,SearchOption.AllDirectories);
    collection.AddRange(foundFiles);
}
catch(UnauthorizedAccessException)
{
      //Call for each dir since we don't know which failed
      var subDirs = dInfo.GetDirectories();
      foreach(var subDir in subDirs)
      {
          RecursiveFileFinder(string path, List<string> collection);
      }
}
}
</string></string>

I havn't tested it but I had to do something similar to this before and it resolved the issue.

Henry Minute · Answer 2 · 2010-09-20T04:50:00

If your search method is of the 'usual' recursive type, you can catch the problematic exceptions and ignore them.

Something like:

C#

try
{
    files = Directory.GetFiles(directory, search);
}
catch (UnauthorizedAccessException)
{
    return;
}
catch (DirectoryNotFoundException)
{
    return;
}

You should probably add a third catch for other exceptions, displaying them (MessageBox, Console...whatever) so that you can then decide whether to add a specific exception handler for them.

Grimes · Answer 3 · 2010-09-20T22:40:00

Thanks for everyones help. I thought that there would be an easy method to use to fix the problem, but it seems that I had to write my own recursive search function.

My method was based on Collin's code, so thanx for the help. Here is the code that I wrote:

public static ArrayList GetFiles(string SearchPath, string FileName)
        {
            //Temporarily stores the files found
            ArrayList TempFileNames = new ArrayList();
            try
            {
                //get all the sub directories
                DirectoryInfo DirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(SearchPath);
                DirectoryInfo[] SubDirs = DirInfo.GetDirectories();
                for (int i = 0; i < SubDirs.Length; i++)
                {
                    //check inside each sub-dir (Recursion)                   
                    TempFileNames.AddRange(GetFiles(SubDirs[i].FullName, FileName));
                }
                //after searching sub-dirs look in the current dir
                TempFileNames.AddRange(Directory.GetFiles(SearchPath, FileName, SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly));
            }
            //Handle exceptions for unreadable files
            catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ex)
            { 
                return TempFileNames;
            }
            catch (DirectoryNotFoundException ex)
            {
                return TempFileNames;
            }
            return TempFileNames;
        }

I have tested it and it works and ignores the unreadable directories as it should. Hopefully this helps the next guy ;)

demouser743 · Answer 4 · 2010-09-20T04:27:00

Solution 1

A sample code to retrieve the text files with some name

string strFileEntries = Directory.GetFiles(strFilePath, "FileHeader*.txt");

This will give all the files with txt as extension.

Posted 20-Sep-10 4:27am

demouser743

v2

Comments

Grimes 20-Sep-10 10:36am

The problem isn't that I can't find files. The code I am using is finding the correct files, it is just that if there are read-protected directories in the folder I am searching in, the search fails with "UnauthorizedAccessException"

I want to know if there is a way to ignore these read-protected folders.

Grimes 20-Sep-10 10:37am

..or a way to ignore these UnauthorizedAccessException exceptions and continue searching in the other folders...

demouser743 20-Sep-10 10:46am

Where your files exists are you placing in any seperate folder or saving in any other

Grimes 20-Sep-10 10:53am

The program I am writing should look for certain files, and should be able to search complete hard drives, removable drives or network locations. So it frequently encounters protected directories.

Searching for files

4 solutions

Solution 2

Solution 3

Solution 4

Solution 1

Add your solution here

Preview 0