C# Search base folder and subdirectories for a folder with a specific name

Question

I have a system tray application that makes use of ContextMenus to dynamically create a list of folders depending upon a SQL result set.

After the SQL result set is generated, this returns a list of active tasks. The application then generates ToolStripMenuItem for each of the active tasks from the result set using a for each loop.

This is where I begin to struggle. I have been searching for a while now for the best way to enable users to open these dynamically created folders.

I have created an on click event handler that is controlled by the sender, but I am unable to think of a decent (working) way to then find the file paths for the folders created.

I have a base folder, lets say "C:\" with two subfolders, 2014 and 2015. I need my application to take the folder name clicked on and search for the actual folder within "C:\" and sub folders of "C:\", then open this with process.start.

I began by creating a for each loop using System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories, however this only seems to find the first set of folders (EG: 2014, 2015), even when using the SearchOption.AllDirectories method overload. Code example:

string path2 = @"C:\";
foreach (string dir in System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(path2, SearchOption.AllDirectories))
    {
        if (new DirectoryInfo(dir).Name.Contains(test))
        {
            MessageBox.Show(dir);
        }
    }

Can any one provide some ideas as to how to search for folders and sub folders that contain a pre-defined string (which wont necessarily complete the full folder path), so that the full file path can be returned?

Thanks

[How to recursively list all the files in a directory in C#?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/929276/how-to-recursively-list-all-the-files-in-a-directory-in-c) should help you. You just need the folders instead of the files, but it shouldn't be hard to change. — Jashaszun, Jun 17 '15 at 15:23
Hi Jashaszun, I was dreading having to look at recursion, I will do this now, thanks for the link. I guess I was hoping that the option would be much simpler than the recursion option (which still blows my mind). — dmoney, Jun 17 '15 at 15:25

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '15 at 15:36

2

I'm honestly not even sure how your code compiles, because in my C# there is no overload of Directory.GetDirectories(...) that takes a string and a SearchOption.

It seems to me that you don't need recursion, but in fact only need to use a specific overload of Directory.GetDirectories:

string path2 = @"C:\";
foreach (string dir in Directory.GetDirectories(path2, test, SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
    // do what you want with dir.
}

This says "for each directory and sub-directory in path2 whose name matches test, do ...".

answered Jun 17 '15 at 15:36

Jashaszun

9,207
3
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Thank you man, I actually have a commented out version of this same code snippet in my project. I have been fluttering around different solutions today and genuinely cannot remember what the outcome of using it was. I clearly mustn't have done it right if I have moved on to recursion as an alternate way. I will revisit this when my head has recovered from looking at recursion for the first time. Appreciate it. – dmoney Jun 17 '15 at 15:51

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 17 '15 at 15:32

1

In order to get all sub folders you can use this code

DirectoryInfo dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(@"Path to Folder");
DirectoryInfo[] subFolders = dirInfo.GetDirectories();

And then search for each subfolder if the name is 2014 or 2015 or whatever...

answered Jun 17 '15 at 15:32

Aris Skam

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1
4

C# Search base folder and subdirectories for a folder with a specific name

2 Answers2