Contains function doesn't find specific files in sub directories

Question

I created a string array that utilizes the Directory.GetFiles function which populates the array with .cs file extensions from all sub directories in my project. This is fine, however, I was trying to write these files to a text document while excluding specific files from the array such as "AssemblyInfo.cs" and "TemporaryGeneratedFiles_xxx.cs" using the contains method to filter files with these names. For the most part, the large majority of these files were not written to the text document, however, there are a few cases where these files manage to show up within the text document.

I've tried using a foreach statement instead of a for loop. I've tried playing around with the str.flush(), str.close(), directoryNames.Dispose(), and directoryNames.Close() by putting them in different spots of the for loop. I tried nesting the if statements instead of using the && operator. The || operator doesn't work in this situation. I've tried using the entire file name and only bits and pieces of the file name and none of this seems to work. At one point I did manage to remove all file that had "Temporary" in it but the "AssemblyInfo.cs" files still remain. I even made a method to completely remove anything with the word temporary or assembly in its file name but that also failed.

FileStream directoryNames = new FileStream(dirListPath, FileMode.OpenOrCreate);
StreamWriter str = new StreamWriter(directoryNames);

string[] allFiles = Directory.GetFiles(dirPath, "*.cs", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

for (int i = 0; i < allFiles.Length; i++)
{
    if ((!allFiles[i].Contains("Temporary")) && (!allFiles[i].Contains("Assembly")))
    {
        str.Write(allFiles[i] + Environment.NewLine);
    }
}
str.Flush();
str.Close();
directoryNames.Dispose();
directoryNames.Close();

No error messages occur but as stated above unexpected files pop up where they shouldn't be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you show us an example output and desired output of your code? — theblackips, Jul 03 '19 at 12:32
string.Contains is case sensitive. Here how to have a case insensitive search https://stackoverflow.com/questions/444798/case-insensitive-containsstring or even better using an extension method here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17563929/how-to-make-string-contains-case-insensitive — Steve, Jul 03 '19 at 12:33
Please put a breakpoint on `str.Write(allFiles[i] + Environment.NewLine);`. Run through it until the value of `allFiles[i]` is a file you **don't** want added to the file (yes, this may take a while and will be tedious and boring). What is the **exact value** of `allFiles[i]` when that occurs? — mjwills, Jul 03 '19 at 13:38
`however, there are a few cases where these files manage to show up within the text document.` Can you share those few cases with us? — mjwills, Jul 03 '19 at 13:39
Have you considered deleting `dirListPath` before running your code? I have a sneaking suspicion that using `OpenOrCreate` means you are writing to the start of the file but that the old contents of the file _might_ be left there, so perhaps you are seeing old text in the file? _One way to test my theory would be write `THIS IS TO THE END` to the stream **outside of the loop** and then see where that ends up in the file.__ — mjwills, Jul 03 '19 at 13:42

Thomas.W.Waller · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-03T15:28:51.890

Thanks to everyone who posted. After some testing mjwillis was correct. Instead of overwriting the contents in the text file it kept writing to the top of the file and adding on to the contents that were written previously. Fixed it by adding

using (FileStream clearTextDocument = File.Create(dirListPath)) { }

Before the FileStream DirectoryNames line. Feel free to post another way to clear a text document if it's more attractive than this.

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 03 '19 at 13:04

As @steve suggested you code ignores case sensitivity. Try this one.

var allFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(dirPath, "*.cs", SearchOption.AllDirectories)
                        .Where(file => file.IndexOf("Temporary", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) < 0
                                       && file.IndexOf("Assembly", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) < 0);

File.WriteAllLines(dirListPath, allFiles);

PS: This code makes many changes to your code, but in essence they are same.

Contains function doesn't find specific files in sub directories

2 Answers2