List directory contents with VB.NET's DirectoryInfo and FileSystemInfo classes

by Irina Medvinskaya | Jun 21, 2006 7:53:00 PM

Tags: Microsoft development tools, Programming languages, Microsoft Visual Basic.Net, Irina Medvinskaya, FileSystemInfo �, DirectoryInfo, Visual Basic Tips Newsletter

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Takeaway: Irina Medvinskay shows you how to list all the files in a particular directory and then access the files' properties with the VB.NET classes DirectoryInfo and FileSystemInfo.

VB.NET offers two handy classes�DirectoryInfo and FileSystemInfo�that allow you to access directories, check their properties, and perform other basic functions on the file system. DirectoryInfo lets you get information about a directory, and create, move, and enumerate through directories and subdirectories. FileSystemInfo has methods that allow you to manipulate both files and directories; therefore, a FileSystemInfo object can represent either a directory or a file. In this tip, I'll show you a way to list all the files in a particular directory and then access the files' properties using DirectoryInfo and FileSystemInfo classes.

Listing A demonstrates a simple way of looping through a particular directory and displaying its contents. I display a name of each file or subdirectory found in a given directory. I also add a label and a list box to the form. The list box will display the contents of the directory. The screen will look like Figure B.

In the code, I define the variable sDir to hold the location of the directory, which we will access in our example. Then I create an instance of the DirectoryInfo class, specifying its location with the dDir variable, creating a loop to go through the directory, and adding each file found in the directory to a list control. In the loop, I utilize an instance of the FileSystemInfo class since the directory may include both files and subdirectories. The result will look similar to Figure C.

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