Directory.EnumerateDirectories Method (String)

You can specify relative or absolute path information in the path parameter. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory, which you can determine by using the GetCurrentDirectory method. The returned directory names are prefixed with the value you provided in the path parameter. For example, if you provide a relative path in the path parameter, the returned directory names will contain a relative path.

The EnumerateDirectories and GetDirectories methods differ as follows: When you use EnumerateDirectories, you can start enumerating the collection of names before the whole collection is returned; when you use GetDirectories, you must wait for the whole array of names to be returned before you can access the array. Therefore, when you are working with many files and directories, EnumerateDirectories can be more efficient.

The returned collection is not cached; each call to the GetEnumerator on the collection will start a new enumeration.

The following example enumerates the top-level directories in a specified path.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;

class Program
{
    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            string dirPath = @"\\archives\2009\reports";

            List<string> dirs = new List<string>(Directory.EnumerateDirectories(dirPath));

            foreach (var dir in dirs)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0}", dir.Substring(dir.LastIndexOf("\\") + 1));
            }
            Console.WriteLine("{0} directories found.",  dirs.Count);
        }
        catch (UnauthorizedAccessException UAEx)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(UAEx.Message);
        }
        catch (PathTooLongException PathEx)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(PathEx.Message);
        }
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference