[2008] read a directory tree

[Lord Orwell]

is there an easy way to read the directory tree? I would like to be able to do this:
a user picks a number
i dump into a text file the directory tree, but only read as many levels deep as the number entered.
example:
a path on disk: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cabs
user enters "3"
this is returned:
c:\
c:\windows
c:\windows\system32

I have made this work in vb6.0 but i have no idea at all where to even begin in .net.

Other storage ideas for the read path can be considered. It's for a program i am converting to .net that indexes cds. It contains a link to read the directory tree.

[techgnome]

System.IO.Files and System.IO.Directory is what you are looking for....

-tg

[.paul.]

dim path as string = "c:\windows\system32\drivers\cabs"
dim depth as integer = 3
dim tempArray() as string = path.split("\")
 
dim newPath as string 
for x as integer = 1 to depth
    newPath &= tempArray(x-1) & "\"
next

or

io.Directory.GetParent

[Icyculyr]

Directory.GetParent() would be like this:

Imports System.IO

Private Sub frmMain_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
    
End Sub

Private Sub button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles button1.Click
    Dim depth As Integer = CInt(InputBox("Enter a number"))
    Dim path As String = "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\cabs"
    Dim requestedPath As String = ""
    Dim parentDirectories As New List(Of String)
    parentDirectories.Add(Directories.GetParent(path))
    For i As Integer = 0 To depth - 2
        parentDirectories.Add(Directories.GetParent(parentDirectories(i)))
    Next i
    requestedPath = parentDirectories(depth-2)
End Sub

something along that lines, some of the code may be slightly wrong...

Cheers

[Lord Orwell]

i might be able to modify my vb6 code to use system.io.files and system.io.directory. I will look into this. I was hoping someone would have better code than the mess i came up with though: I wrote a recursive function that calls itself (duh) but knows how deep in the calling it is and exits if it is too deep. The problem is i use dir$ and it doesn't let you tell it where to start in a particular directory, so reading a subdirectory's contents would force me to re-read the current directory to get the name of the next directory.

[Phill64]

Take a look at the CodeBank entry by <ABC
It is complete recursive file search, you could adapt this.

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=341919

[techgnome]

Look at the GetDirectories method of the Directory class.... it allows you to specify the directory to look in (so it doesn't even need to be the current directory), and to apply a search criteria...

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim Dirs() As String
        Dirs = System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories("C:\Windows", "*System*")
        Dim dir As String
        For Each dir In Dirs
            MessageBox.Show(dir)
        Next

    End Sub

-tg

[Lord Orwell]

phill64, i checked out that code bank entry. I wish it was commented better. I don't understand it at all, thanks to the fact it's a class. I have never programmed a class before Also i can't cut and paste the code since they used vbcode tags instead of the standard code ones.

[jmcilhinney]

phill64, i checked out that code bank entry. I wish it was commented better. I don't understand it at all, thanks to the fact it's a class. I have never programmed a class before Also i can't cut and paste the code since they used vbcode tags instead of the standard code ones.

Of course you have. Every form you've designed is a class. A class is just a type. If you want to use it you first create an instance, then access its members. Isn't that what you do with forms? If you place a method in a form of yours then it's just as much in a class as any other.

That CodeBank submission seems to be excessively complex for most purposes. Here's some more basic code that will visit every accessible file under whatever folder you specify:

Private Sub VisitAllFiles(ByVal folder As String)
    Try
        For Each file As String In IO.Directory.GetFiles(folder)
            Console.WriteLine(file)
        Next file
 
        For Each subfolder As String In IO.Directory.GetDirectories(folder)
            Me.VisitAllFiles(subfolder)
        Next subfolder
    Catch ex As Exception
        Console.WriteLine("Folder inaccessible: " & folder)
    End Try
End Sub

Obviously you can replace Console.WriteLine with whatever you want to do to the file. You can also specify a filter when calling GetFiles if you want.

[.paul.]

phill64, i checked out that code bank entry. I wish it was commented better. I don't understand it at all, thanks to the fact it's a class. I have never programmed a class before Also i can't cut and paste the code since they used vbcode tags instead of the standard code ones.

copy the code + paste it into wordpad. then you can select it in wordpad + paste it into your project

[Lord Orwell]

when i did that it copied the line numbers.

Thanks JMC, I will give that a shot when i get off of work later and let you know if i have any issues with it