another listbox problem.. this one's tricky.

[nahya^^]

i want to create a function that will scan a designated directory for specific files (in this case, *.dat), and then add the filenames (excluding the extension) in a listbox.

i have no idea where to begin... i appreciate ANY help.
thanks!

[Edneeis]

Check out the IO namespace everything you need is in there.

IO.Path.GetFilenameWithoutExtension will get the filename.

IO.Directory.GetFiles will get the files.

[nahya^^]

d'oh!
i always look in the wrong category. i was looking in io.file.

thanks.

EDIT:
i guess i'll have to deal with arrays and for...next loop here. but how can i acquire the number of files in a directory? this is what i have so far.

Dim FileNames As Array
        FileNames = IO.Directory.GetFiles(Application.StartupPath & "\dat")

not sure if i'm even doing this right. i do get each filenames when i want filenames(0), filenames(1), etc.

[Pirate]

If you want to search in subfolders as well , then look up the search recursive method on this forum .

[nahya^^]

nah i just need the info on files in one directory.
i tried using ms's example of

Dim dir As New DirectoryInfo("f:\windows\system32")
Console.WriteLine(dir.Name)
Console.WriteLine(dir.FullName)
Console.WriteLine(dir.Root.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Number of subfolders: " & dir.GetDirectories().Length)
Console.WriteLine("Number of files: " & dir.GetFiles().Length)

but i get "property access must assign to the property or uses of its value" error on dir.GetFiles().Length(). vb changed dir.GetFiles().Length to dir.GetFiles().Length() itself.

oh yeah. i did
Dim dir As New IO.DirectoryInfo("blehmydirectory") because i would get an error without IO.

[Pirate]

dir.GetDirectories().Length.[B]ToString()[/B]

[nahya^^]

thanks. that does exactly what i wanted.
but i'm having another trouble with arrays.

Dim FileNames As Array
        Dim FileNum As Int32
        Dim dir As New IO.DirectoryInfo(Application.StartupPath & "\dat")
        Dim i As Int32
        Dim FileName As String
        FileNames = IO.Directory.GetFiles(Application.StartupPath & "\dat")
        FileNum = dir.GetFiles().Length.ToString()
        For i = 0 To FileNum
            FileName = IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(FileNames(i))
            lstCode.Items.Add(FileName)
        Next

i get an error at FileName = IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(FileNames(i)) and it says "Index was outside the bounds of the array."

what's wrong with it?

[Pirate]

Try this now

Dim FileNames As Array
        Dim FileNum As Int32
        Dim dir As New IO.DirectoryInfo(Application.StartupPath & "\dat")
        Dim i As Int32
        Dim FileName As String
        FileNames = IO.Directory.GetFiles(Application.StartupPath & "\dat")
        FileNum = dir.GetFiles().Length [B]-1[/B]
        For i = 0 To FileNum
            FileName = IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(FileNames(i))
            lstCode.Items.Add(FileName)
        Next

[nahya^^]

whoa. you're awesome.
i don't get the -1 part though.
i remember having to use that for my listbox. why does dir.GetFiles().Length generate one more than what's really there? weird.

but it works great. thanks!

[Pirate]

Arrays start indexing from 0 and the GetDirectories() method returns the actual number of directories (remember we count things from 1 not 0 ) .

a simple example in C# might clear things up :

System.IO.DirectoryInfo dirInfo=new System.IO.DirectoryInfo("path");

			//GetDirectories = 12
			for (int i=0;i<dirInfo.GetDirectories().Length;i++)
			{
				//Here max value for i is 12 but executes 11 times
			}

			for (int i=0;i <=dirInfo.GetDirectories().Length-1;i++)
			{
				//Here max value for i is 11 and executes 11 times
			}

[Pirate]

BTW , check this method also . It exists in any kind of array obj .

GetUpperBound

[nahya^^]

baah that c# code is confusing but what you said made sense
thanks. so i guess same thing with the listbox since it starts with 0 too. bleh.

[Edneeis]

Dim FileNames() As String = IO.Directory.GetFiles(Application.StartupPath & "\*.dat")
        For Each file As String In Filenames
            lstCode.Items.Add(IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file))
        Next

[nahya^^]

Originally posted by Edneeis

Dim FileNames() As String = IO.Directory.GetFiles(Application.StartupPath & "\*.dat")
        For Each file As String In Filenames
            lstCode.Items.Add(IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file))
        Next

i get an illegal character error on the first line

[Edneeis]

My bad I put the pattern in the path. Are you searching the subfolder 'dat' or for all dat file types? Or both? This shows if you are doing both:

Dim folder As String = IO.Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "dat")
        Dim files() As String = IO.Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.dat")
        For Each file As String In files
            lstCode.Items.Add(IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file))
        Next

[nahya^^]

i just wanted to load the names of all *.dat in \dat.
thanks, it worked perfectly. pretty awesome.

[PT Exorcist]

Originally posted by Edneeis
My bad I put the pattern in the path. Are you searching the subfolder 'dat' or for all dat file types? Or both? This shows if you are doing both:

Dim folder As String = IO.Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "dat")
        Dim files() As String = IO.Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.dat")
        For Each file As String In files
            lstCode.Items.Add(IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(file))
        Next

hehe it happens to me all the time too