How to: Create a Directory Listing
The following code example shows how to use the I/O classes to create a listing of all files with the extension ".exe" in a directory.
Example
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Public Class DirectoryLister
Public Shared Sub Main(args() As String)
Dim path As String = Environment.CurrentDirectory
If args.Length > 0 Then
If Directory.Exists(args(0)) Then
path = args(0)
Else
Console.WriteLine("{0} not found; using current directory:",
args(0))
End If
End If
Dim dir As New DirectoryInfo(path)
For Each f As FileInfo In dir.GetFiles("*.exe")
Dim name As String = f.Name
Dim size As Long = f.Length
Dim creationTime As DateTime = f.CreationTime
Console.WriteLine("{0,-12:N0} {1,-20:g} {2}", size,
creationTime, name)
Next f
End Sub
End Class
using System;
using System.IO;
public class DirectoryLister
{
public static void Main(String[] args)
{
string path = Environment.CurrentDirectory;
if (args.Length > 0)
{
if (Directory.Exists(args[0]))
{
path = args[0];
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} not found; using current directory:",
args[0]);
}
}
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(path);
foreach (FileInfo f in dir.GetFiles("*.exe"))
{
string name = f.Name;
long size = f.Length;
DateTime creationTime = f.CreationTime;
Console.WriteLine("{0,-12:N0} {1,-20:g} {2}", size,
creationTime, name);
}
}
}
using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
public ref class DirectoryLister
{
public:
static void Main(array<String^>^ args)
{
String^ path = Environment::CurrentDirectory;
if (args->Length > 0)
{
if (Directory::Exists(args[0]))
{
path = args[0];
}
else
{
Console::WriteLine("{0} not found; using current directory:",
args[0]);
}
}
DirectoryInfo^ dir = gcnew DirectoryInfo(path);
for each (FileInfo^ f in dir->GetFiles("*.exe"))
{
String^ name = f->Name;
long size = f->Length;
DateTime^ creationTime = f->CreationTime;
Console::WriteLine("{0,-12:N0} {1,-20:g} {2}", size,
creationTime, name);
}
}
};
int main()
{
DirectoryLister::Main(Environment::GetCommandLineArgs());
}
Robust Programming
In this example, the DirectoryInfo is the current directory, denoted by ("."), and the code lists all files in the current directory having a .exe extension, along with their file size, creation time, and name. Assuming that there were .exe files in the \Bin subdirectory of C:\MyDir, the output of this code might look like this:
953 7/20/2000 10:42 AM C:\MyDir\Bin\paramatt.exe
664 7/27/2000 3:11 PM C:\MyDir\Bin\tst.exe
403 8/8/2000 10:25 AM C:\MyDir\Bin\dirlist.exe
If you want a list of files in another directory, such as your C:\ root directory, pass the argument "C:\" into the executable generated by compiling this code, for example: "testApplication.exe C:\".
Note
Visual Basic users may choose to use the methods and properties provided by the FileSystem class for file I/O.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Read and Write to a Newly Created Data File
How to: Open and Append to a Log File
How to: Read Characters from a String
How to: Write Characters to a String