How to exclude sub directories based on array values

Question

I need to get the full path from directories but use an array to exclude certain paths without entering the full path into the array.

I am getting the path of directories like this:

List<string> dirs = di.GetDirectories("vault*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
.Select(x => x.FullName).ToList();

The directory looks like this: I need to filter based on the parent after C.

C:\A\vault
C:\B\vault
C:\C\vault

I have an array like this:

string[] exclude = new string[] {"A", "B"};

Doing something like below does not work because it will require I enter the full name of the path to exclude in the array, which can get nasty:

dirs.Except(exclude);

How can I do this better so that I can easily update the array without all the extraneous characters of longer paths? Example: Adding an additional path in the future to exclude.

Do you want to exclude all path which contain A or B (in your example), would `.contain` not work? — peeyush singh, Feb 18 '19 at 08:25
I have updated the question to show the structure of the directory. — Advanced Novice, Feb 18 '19 at 08:26
regex might be the most general approach, but if in your case the exclude directory is always after the root (c:\) then you can build a string using root + values from array and again use contain. — peeyush singh, Feb 18 '19 at 08:30
You can also implement your own like operator which works similar to the SQL like operator...can see once similar implementation here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5374481/like-operator-in-linq — peeyush singh, Feb 18 '19 at 08:34
Possible duplicate of [How does one extract each folder name from a path?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/401304/how-does-one-extract-each-folder-name-from-a-path) — mjwills, Feb 18 '19 at 08:35

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 18 '19 at 23:24

1

I think this should work just fine:

string[] exclude = new string[] { "A", "B" };

List<string> dirs =
    di
        .GetDirectories("vault*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
        .Where(x => !exclude.Contains(x.Name))
        .Select(x => x.FullName)
        .ToList();

I've tested it. Note that the Contains being used is against exclude - so this is checking whether the Name exists within the array, it is not doing some form of substring search.

To be a little more robust it might be worth using this:

.Where(x => !exclude.Select(y => y.ToUpperInvariant()).Contains(x.Name.ToUpperInvariant()))

edited Feb 18 '19 at 23:24

mjwills

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answered Feb 18 '19 at 09:32

Enigmativity

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For this set of data, yes. What if one of the excluded strings was `a`? that would exclude all directories. – Zohar Peled Feb 18 '19 at 11:47
@ZoharPeled - Why is that? – Enigmativity Feb 18 '19 at 11:51
@ZoharPeled You check on the `Name` property of `DirectoryInfo`. It only contains the exact name of that folder and not the full path. – NotFound Feb 18 '19 at 12:23

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 18 '19 at 08:43

0

You have to changed SearchPattern something like:

 List<string> dirs = di.GetDirectories("C\\Vault*", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
           .Select(x => x.FullName).ToList();

All A and B are excluded already

answered Feb 18 '19 at 08:43

Vijunav Vastivch

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Wouldn't that exclude `C` as well? – Zohar Peled Feb 18 '19 at 08:55
No C is not excluded according to your `string[] exclude = new string[] {"A", "B"}; ` – Vijunav Vastivch Feb 18 '19 at 08:56
No, you are correct, `C` would not be excluded (not my question, though). However, what if there was a path `C:\D\Vault`? that would be excluded, wouldn't it? – Zohar Peled Feb 18 '19 at 09:00

How to exclude sub directories based on array values

2 Answers2